Using a Twitter Chat to Rapidly Identify Barriers and Policy Solutions for Metastatic Breast Cancer Care: Qualitative Study (JMIR Public Health and Surveillance)
Summary: Metastatic breast cancer survival rates are low and are in part impacted by time-sensitive access to care factors that may be improved through policy changes. Online communities have formed to provide support for patients and foster collaboration among patients, clinicians, advocates, and researchers.
Findings: For patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC), online community insights drawn from social media platforms such as Twitter may be a timely source of data for policymakers to generate changes to improve health care and outcomes for MBC patients.
Twitter chat participants identified barriers to MBC care including communication gaps between health care providers and patients, delays in insurance authorizations of treatments and other procedures, insurance denials of palliative care or specialized care, and financial challenges including barriers to obtaining disability benefits. Policy recommendations such as expanding the availability of nurse navigation for MBC and improving access to clinical trials may improve care for MBC patients.
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