Recommendations From the Twitter Hashtag #DoctorsAreDickheads: Qualitative Analysis

Area of Science:

• Social Sciences
• Health Services Research
• Digital Health

Background:

• Twitter is a major platform for health-related discussions, with millions of daily active users.
• A significant online conversation emerged in 2018 using the hashtag #DoctorsAreDickheads, reflecting patient dissatisfaction.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the content of the #DoctorsAreDickheads hashtag.
• To identify prevalent health conditions and themes within patient-reported healthcare experiences.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative content analysis of 491 tweets from October-December 2018.
• Phenomenological approach involving open coding, memoing, and expert discussion.
• Abstraction of user roles and clinical conditions from tweets and profiles.

Main Results:

• Patients and patient advocates comprised over 50% of the sample.
• Commonly reported issues included chronic pain, mental health, and musculoskeletal conditions (e.g., Ehlers-Danlos syndrome).
• Key themes identified were disbelief in patient experiences, power inequity, and commentary on the hashtag's impact.

Conclusions:

• Public disclosure of healthcare experiences on Twitter increases accountability and impacts public perception.
• Harmful communication can lead to diagnostic errors; addressing this is crucial for patient safety.
• Recommendations include improving provider communication, supporting patients, and fostering patient engagement.