STRUCTURE OF CONVERSATIONS OF HEALTHCARE PRACTITIONERS ON EBOLA VIRUS DISEASE IN THE MEDSCAPE NETWORK, 2014-2018

Abstract

The outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) during 2014-2015 generated discussions and exchange of information among Healthcare Practitioners (HCPs) on social media and other platforms. These exchanges improved understanding of the disease. Previous studies have examined the medical aspects of the disease, with little attention paid to the nature and structure of conversations on the disease among HCPs on social media networks. This study was, therefore, designed to investigate the characteristics, trends, knowledge content, and relevance of conversations on EVD on the Medscape network and the participation behaviours and roles of different categories of HCPs. Conversation and Social Network theories guided the study, while content analysis was adopted as the research design. Data on EVD topics and corresponding HCPs‘ posts on the topics from March 26, 2014 to April 27, 2018 were extracted from the Medscape network website. The data were analysed thematically, while a 1-mode network was developed to determine the centrality measures of the nodes representing the participating HCPs. There were 391 EVD news topics and associated contents, and the HCPs responded to 234 of the topics which generated 7,343 conversations, while 157 topics received no responses. The trend of EVD conversations among HCPs showed a high conversation frequency of 6,479 (88.2%) at the peak period of EVD outbreak in 2014, but declined thereafter. The 234 news posts that received responses were on six main themes - management (106, 45.3%), risks (33, 14.1%), resources (29, 12.4%), treatment (25, 10.7%), transmission (19, 8.1%) and others (22, 9.4%), but the ensuing conversations by HCPs on the topics focused mainly on EVD risks (4,679, 63.7%). Almost all the conversations (7,230, 98.6%) were adjudged by medical experts to be relevant to the EVD topics and contents posted on the network. A total of 3,310 HCPs participated in the conversations, but only 95 were assessed active. Participation in the conversations by HCPs showed that medical doctors contributed 57.4%, followed by nurses (27.5%), pharmacists (2.2%), health/business administrators (2.2%), medical students (1.9%), and nursing students (1.1%), while miscellaneous other categories accounted for 7.6%. Conversations by the healthcare practitioners focused mainly on Ebola virus disease management and risks, and were mostly relevant to the posted topics. Health agencies at national and global levels should recognise conversations among healthcare practitioners on social media networks as important sources of information on Ebola virus disease and other emerging diseases.