Using A Patient'S Social Network To Diagnose Disease

Question

[Andrew Su]

This is a long shot, but I'm going to give it a try anyway.

I remember reading not too long ago (within the past couple of months) about researchers who studied the ability of a person's social network to diagnose or detect that person's disease. The gist of the study was that the network did surprisingly well.

I don't remember the exact study design (whether network members were explicitly asked to guess, or whether the researchers harnessed guesses from off-hand comments). I don't remember how the user's social network was defined either (but presumably it was probably through Facebook or Twitter). In fact, I don't remember much beyond what I've written above, and I even might have remembered something incorrectly. I only read the headline and skimmed the article. However, I realize the details of this article are now incredibly important to me for a grant proposal.

As soon as the system allows me to, I will offer a bounty of 200 points. Help please!

NOTE: I am not thinking of this study, as compelling as it is. I recall the study I'm looking for being more of a scientific study rather than an anecdotal case report.

[Michael Schubert]

Not enough for an answer, but might help as a starting point: http://www.ted.com/talks/nicholas_christakis_how_social_networks_predict_epidemics.html

[Andrew Su]

maybe not enough for an answer, but enough for a +1...

Answer 1

[Larry_Parnell]

This is indeed an interesting question. In the event that you are not able to locate what originally came to mind, allow me to offer a study of social networks and dietary patterns. Diet is one step, in many cases, from certain diseases. See this paper, entitled Social network concordance in food choice among spouses, friends, and siblings.

What I did not add when I first posted this was the main result: The aspect of the diet that is most influenced by the person's social network is snack and alcohol intake. Now that's intriguing.

[Andrew Su]

Not the one I was thinking of, but agreed, interesting nonetheless!

Answer 2

[Khader Shameer]

Is it one of these papers ?

1. Whole-genome sequencing and social-network analysis of a tuberculosis outbreak.

2. Spreading paths in partially observed social networks

[Andrew Su]

Very cool, especially #1. But no, unfortunately not the one I was thinking of...

Answer 3

[David Quigley]

Apparently it's not Whole-Genome Sequencing and Social-Network Analysis of a Tuberculosis Outbreak (NEJM 2011). You might instead be interested in:

Role of social networks in shaping disease transmission during a community outbreak of 2009 H1N1 pandemic influenza (PNAS 2011)

Just to show this isn't a new idea and the epidemiology literature here might be is older than you think:

A prospective study of social networks in relation to total mortality and cardiovascular disease in men in the USA. (J Epidemiol Community Health 1996)

Social networks as predictors of ischemic heart disease, cancer, stroke and hypertension: Incidence, survival and mortality (Journal of Clinical Epidemiology 1992)

[Larry_Parnell]

I like the historical perspective +1.

[Dpsguy]

The PNAS article was published in Jan 2011, not 2009. Just for the sake of correctness.

[David Quigley]

Thanks, corrected.

Answer 4

[Manu Prestat]

What about this one in breast cancer research ?

[Andrew Su]

nothing really related to diagnosis, but definitely in the right space of what I was looking for... Thanks!

Answer 5

[Mary]

I kinda remember some buzz about that too, but it escapes me in the details too. I did a search for tweets though (as I suspected that's where I saw it) and I found this one. It is, however, in Danish. Jeg taler lidt dansk, but not enough to help you with this. However, every Dane I've ever spoken to has better English than many of my friends, and if you contact the authors I bet they'd help you out :)

Can Differential Diagnosis Be Crowdsourced to Facebook Friends? is the place I found it via Topsy.

This appears to be the paper: Lægfolk kan bruge deres Facebook-venner til at få hjælp vedrørende medicinske diagnoser

[Andrew Su]

Google translate was enough to get the gist of it. Mary wins! After starting to think I'd just imagined the whole thing, this study was exactly the one I was thinking of. In case anyone else is interested, the PDF version is here: http://www.ugeskriftet.dk/LF/UFL/2011/49/pdf/VP61143.pdf

[Andrew Su]

The English abstract looks very very promising! Any Danish folks in the room who can summarize the full text? Thanks Mary!

[Mary]

With an assist from that nice woman on Google+!

Answer 6

[Gjain]

Hi Andrew,

I also remember vaguely reading something like that. I think this might be the one. Social Media Valuable Tool to Recruit Study Participants for Rare Diseases

some close ones I came across:

1. Data from Patient Social Network Refutes Lithium for ALS
2. Story on NPR

I hope this helps.

[Dpsguy]

Speaking of using social networking to recruit patients, check out this one as well: Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection: A Disease-Specific, Social Networking Community–Initiated Study (http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.com/content/86/9/845.short)

[Gjain]

yeah I read this one. I like the new methods to approach people. Its pretty good and effective. Thanks for the link.

Answer 7

[Wolf]

maybe this study on military personel:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17760855

Answer 8

[Dpsguy]

Some other articles you could find interesting:

Social Network And Molecular Analysis To Evaluate Hospital Transmission Of Extensively Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis (xdr Tb) In South Africa

Rapid Dengue and Outbreak Detection with Mobile Systems and Social Networks