After its inception in 2016, #AskRenal questions and answers have been a constant presence in the #NephTwitter community. What is #AskRenal? It is a crowdsourcing tool, developed by nephrologists active on social media, to help Twitter users get timely answers to nephrology questions. Any Twitter user can post a question, but in the context of 303 million Tweets per day in 2016 (up to 867 million in 2022), will it even be seen by someone who knows the answer? The NephJC #AskRenal team created a Twitter account @AskRenal to amplify any tweets containing the hashtag #AskRenal. Automated programing scans public Twitter content hourly and @AskRenal account retweets any tweet that contains the hashtag #AskRenal.
Link to the Precious Bodily Fluids post introducing the concept.
After 5 years, we looked back at the work to see what impact was made. We analyzed over three thousand #AskRenal-containing Twitter questions (spanning years 2016-2020) and found that more than 75% #AskRenal questions received a reply. The replies were prompt with almost 70% occurring within 6 hours of original question posting. A group of nephrology professionals found the replies to be helpful in answering the original questions over 80% of the time. Importantly, a question posed by an account with 0-100 followers was just as likely to receive a helpful and timely response as an account with > 1000 followers. No more screaming into the void! A targeted hashtag and Twitter automation to the rescue.
This project and its findings were recently presented at the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) 2022 Kidney Week in Orlando, FL.
Video of the oral abstract presentation.
Video is here: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/players/ZsSkQBuH-rmTFgmxB.html
#AskRenal has come a long way, from its inception in 2016 to an ASN Kidney Week oral abstract in 2022, and intends to keep its promise to bring your burning questions directly to the nephrology nerds just bubbling with answers!
Jade Teakell, MD, PhD, FASN
UT McGovern Medical School,
Houston, TX
NSMC Class of 2021