Lauren E Charles-Smith, Tera L Reynolds, Mark A Cameron, Mike Conway, Eric H Y Lau, Jennifer M Olsen, Julie A Pavlin, Mika Shigematsu, Laura C Streichert, Katie J Suda, Courtney D Corley
OBJECTIVE: Research studies show that social media may be valuable tools in the disease surveillance toolkit used for improving public health professionals' ability to detect disease outbreaks faster than traditional methods and to enhance outbreak response. A social media work group, consisting of surveillance practitioners, academic researchers, and other subject matter experts convened by the International Society for Disease Surveillance, conducted a systematic primary literature review using the PRISMA framework to identify research, published through February 2013, answering either of the following questions: Can social media be integrated into disease surveillance practice and outbreak management to support and improve public health?Can social media be used to effectively target populations, specifically vulnerable populations, to test an intervention and interact with a community to improve health outcomes?Examples of social media included are Facebook, MySpace, microblogs (e...
2015: PloS One