Twitter Use Improves Food Poisoning Reports, Says Washington University
According to a new study conducted by the Brown School at Washington University (St. Louis, MO), notifying the proper government authorities of suspected food poisoning could improve not only the reporting of such illnesses, but thoroughness of the follow up investigation as well.
Jenine Harris, an associate professor at the university teamed up with some colleagues and the St. Louis Department of Health back in October 2015. Together, they implemented the HealthMap Foodborne Dashboard--first developed at Boston Children’s Hospital. Over the course of 7 months, the team identified 173 food poisoning-related tweets and replied with a link where those consumers could properly report their illness to the health department. Of those tweets, 7 percent of them resulted in an official report submission.