Best Paper Selection

Reuter K, Zhu Y, Angyan P, Le N, Merchant AA, Zimmer M. Public concern about monitoring twitter users and their conversations to recruit for clinical trials: survey study. J Med Internet Res 2019 Oct 30;21(10):e15455 https://www.jmir.org/2019/10/e15455/

Appendix: Content Summaries of Selected Best Paper for the IMIA Yearbook 2020

Reuter K, Zhu Y, Angyan P, Le N, Merchant AA, Zimmer M

Public concern about monitoring twitter users and their conversations to recruit for clinical trials: survey study

J Med Internet Res 2019 Oct 30;21(10):e15455

This study used two online surveys to examine public attitudes of using Twitter to recruit clinical trial participants. While nearly half the survey respondents agreed that social media monitoring constitutes a form of eavesdropping, the authors concluded that most social media users do not think monitoring Twitter for clinical trial recruitment constitutes inappropriate surveillance or a violation of privacy. The authors also remind researchers to remain mindful that some participants might find social media monitoring problematic when associated with certain conditions or health topics, and that further research is required to isolate factors that influence the level of concern among social media users across platforms and populations.