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Paper Number
2427
Paper Type
Completed
Description
Social media is proposed to play a crucial role in healthcare providers' care decisions. However, social media information may not always be reliable as false information is prone to virality, and emotional cues may drive information sharing. Hence, in our study, we strive to understand the influence of social media on healthcare providers' care decisions by empirically examining the influence of Twitter discourse regarding Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) on the actual prescribing rates of the drug in the USA for treating COVID-19 patients. We assembled panel data by collecting tweets from Twitter API v2 and Hydroxychloroquine prescriptions from the Symphony Health dataset on the COVID-19 research database to achieve our research objectives. Econometric analysis of our panel data indicates that Twitter discourse positively influences the proportion of Hydroxychloroquine prescriptions prescribed to COVID-19 patients. Our study has implications for research and practice.
Recommended Citation
Gorthi, Sai Soundarya; Ganju, Kartik; and Pinsonneault, Alain, "Influence of Twitter on Hydroxychloroquine Medication Prescriptions for COVID-19 Patients" (2023). ICIS 2023 Proceedings. 7.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2023/ishealthcare/ishealthcare/7
Influence of Twitter on Hydroxychloroquine Medication Prescriptions for COVID-19 Patients
Social media is proposed to play a crucial role in healthcare providers' care decisions. However, social media information may not always be reliable as false information is prone to virality, and emotional cues may drive information sharing. Hence, in our study, we strive to understand the influence of social media on healthcare providers' care decisions by empirically examining the influence of Twitter discourse regarding Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) on the actual prescribing rates of the drug in the USA for treating COVID-19 patients. We assembled panel data by collecting tweets from Twitter API v2 and Hydroxychloroquine prescriptions from the Symphony Health dataset on the COVID-19 research database to achieve our research objectives. Econometric analysis of our panel data indicates that Twitter discourse positively influences the proportion of Hydroxychloroquine prescriptions prescribed to COVID-19 patients. Our study has implications for research and practice.
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16-HealthCare