BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

One of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on medical education is an increased awareness and use of social media (SocMed) to facilitate learning. However, literature on the use of SocMed in medical education has focused primarily on educator-led teaching activities. Our study aimed to describe SocMed initiatives that were student-led, particularly for information dissemination and peer collaborative learning, and to elicit perceptions of medical students towards such activities.

An online survey on SocMed usage in medical education was sent to all first- and second-year medical students at the University of the Philippines Manila College of Medicine from October to December 2021. The questionnaire collected data on demographics, SocMed habits and preferences, and perceived advantages and disadvantages of SocMed. Descriptive statistics were calculated while the free-text responses were grouped into prominent themes and summarized.

We received a total of 258 responses (71%) out of 361 eligible participants. Overall, 74% found SocMed platforms to be very and extremely helpful; 88% recommended its continued use. The most popular SocMed platforms for different tasks were as follows: Discord for independent study groups and for conducting peer tutoring sessions; Facebook Messenger for reading reminders; Telegram for reading announcements related to academics and administrative requirements, and for accessing material provided by classmates and professors.

The high uptake of SocMed among medical students may be attributed to its accessibility and costefficiency. The use of a particular SocMed platform was dependent on the students’ needs and the platform's features. Students tended to use multiple SocMed platforms that complemented one another. SocMed also had disadvantages, such as the potential to distract from academic work and to become a source of fatigue. Educators must engage with students to understand how SocMed platforms can be integrated into medical education, whether in the physical or virtual learning environment.

BACKGROUND

Acne vulgaris is one of the common skin diseases prompting dermatologic consult. Although prevalent worldwide, knowledge of the public about acne is still lacking. Due to this, content related to acne vulgaris has been a topic of choice on social media platforms.

A cross-sectional study was conducted among 120 patients diagnosed with acne vulgaris aged 18-50 years-old consulting via teledermatology and face-to-face consultation at the Rizal Medical Center. Patients completed a self-administered questionnaire and global acne severity was assessed.

A total of 120 newly d iagnosed patients with acne vulgaris were included in the study, with a mean age of 23.25 years, with a female predominance, household average monthly income less than PhP 10,957 and with mild to moderate acne severity. Majority of the participants used social media to look for treatment options and to gain more knowledge about the disease. The most used platforms were Youtube, Facebook and Tiktok. Short videos were viewed more often and content from dermatologists were preferred. Most commonly tried products are over-the-counted non-pharmaceutical topical products. There was a significant association between the use of social media with age and educational attainment. Furthermore, a significant association between self-medication practices and average household monthly income was seen. No association was seen between acne severity, social media use and self-medication practices.

In summary, the use of social media to access acne-related content was prevalent among young female patients, of lower socioeconomic status diagnosed with mild-moderate acne severity at a tertiary hospital in the Philippines.

BACKGROUND

TikTok is gaining popularity among Filipinos as a source of health-related information. However, there is a concern on the information being disseminated through the platform because misinformation can negatively impact viewers. Hence, the importance of studying health-related videos which can potentially influence belief, behavior, and public health.

This study aimed to describe common themes of health-related videos in TikTok published by Filipino content creators.

A cross-sectional design using qualitative analysis was utilized. One hundred of the most popular videos under #HealthTokPh were collected. Interesting segments were identified and coded. Codes were analyzed through qualitative thematic analysis to create the initial set of themes. Themes were reviewed and refined until the final set of themes was determined. Final themes were analyzed to create a coherent narrative.

There were three main themes among TikTok videos: reproductive and sexual health, infectious diseases, and dermatology. Misinformation was encountered in twelve videos; nine featured healthcare professionals addressing it while three were created by laypeople and had misleading content. Themes were discussed by healthcare professionals to answer questions from TikTok users. Videos showed content creators speaking throughout the video with visual aids such as on-screen texts, diagrams, and product samples. Use of humor and trending background music were more frequent among videos on reproductive and sexual health. Videos on COVID-19 had the most cited information source namely the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), World Health Organization (WHO), and published journals.

Health-related TikTok videos uploaded by Filipino content creators were on reproductive health, sex education, OTC medications, COVID-19, and acne. Common themes were discussed in a simplified but factual manner and misinformation was addressed by citing credible sources. Humor, trending music, and visual aids contributed to popularity.

BACKGROUND

As social media continue to grow as popular and convenient tools for acquiring and disseminating health information, the need to investigate its utilization by laypersons encountering common medical issues becomes increasingly essential.

This study aimed to analyze the content posted in Facebook groups for Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency and how these engage the members of the group.

This study employed an inductive content analysis of user-posted content in both public and private Facebook groups catering specifically to G6PD deficiency. The G6PD Facebook groups with 10 or more posts within the past 12 months were selected for this study. Data were harvested from posts and comments using ExportComment.

A total of 46 G6PD-related Facebook groups were identified. Of which, 19 were public and 27 were private groups, with an average membership of 5000-6000 accounts. After eligibility based on criteria and authorization for private groups, 3 public and 3 private groups were included, with the majority of these groups focused on sharing information. Five main themes of posted content were identified: diagnosis, management, beliefs, psychosocial factors, and medical requirements. “Diagnosis”-related posts referred to conversations about the causes and symptoms of G6PD, “management” referred to medication or diet, “beliefs” involved traditional or lay perceptions, “psychosocial factors” referred to posts that disclosed how psychosocial factors influenced G6PD deficiency practices, and “medical requirements” referred to documentation regarding the condition. The bulk of these posts used three strategies for communication: information-requesting, self-disclosure, and promotion of products/services. Information requests were the most common.

The results of the study showed opportunities and challenges in health education on G6PD, especially in evaluating the credibility and accuracy of the information given and received. Looking at the content and manner of communicating information noted, the newborn screening program may improve its advocacy and education campaign, and may develop targeted educational materials and effective dissemination strategies that could clarify, explain, or refute information and beliefs mostly shared on these platforms.

Various studies have highlighted that women are at a higher risk of becoming victims of cyberbullying, with the severity of cyberbullying among women in many countries increasing and the urgency of having necessary intervention steps by governments and legal institutions in place. Nonetheless, the taboo of discussing mental health and individual struggles has hindered victims from disclosing their cyberbullying experiences they have gone through or are still currently experiencing due to the fear of being discriminated against. Therefore, this study aimed to explore cyberbullying from a victim’s perspective among women with heavy social media usage, as well as their coping strategies. A qualitative research design was utilised to understand the cyberbullying experience and coping strategies among five young women aged between 20 to 26 years old. Participants were recruited through social media. Collected data were analysed using thematic analysis which revealed three cyberbullying themes: “harassment”, “relational aggression” and “trolling”, three initial reaction themes: “anger”, “sadness” and “confusion”, two crossroad themes: “helplessness” and “sense of control” that either lead to the relapse of cyberbullying experience or coping strategies, and three coping strategy themes: “social coping”, “emotion-focused coping” and “problem-focused coping” and lastly, cognitive reappraisal. The findings provide comprehensive insights into understanding cyberbullying experiences and coping strategies among women with heavy social media usage. Understanding the effectiveness of various forms of coping allows mental health professionals to support their clients by finding out the implemented coping strategy and expanding on other forms of coping to build a more holistic support for their clients.
Coping Skills ; Cyberbullying ; Social Media ; Women

Introduction: This study determined the relationship of personal factors and gaming factors with Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD). It aimed to provide information on the association of IGD with depression, anxiety, stress and both depression and anxiety among adolescent gamers. Methods: This was an analytic cross-sectional study among 560 14-18-year-old adolescents from two public high schools in Pasay City that used the Internet Gaming Disorder Scale–Short-Form (IGDS9-SF), Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 items (DASS-21) and gamer profile questionnaires. Results: The prevalence of Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) was low at 1.1%, while moderate depression was observed in 67%, stress in 46.8%, both depression and anxiety in 64.8%, and high anxiety in 89.3% among adolescents. Using multiple logistic regression to control the effects of possible confounders, the association of IGD with depression (OR 0.971, 95% CI 0.085-11.084, p-value .981), anxiety (OR 6.0x107, p-value .999), stress (OR 6.135, 95% CI 0.373-100.991, p-value .204) and both depression and anxiety (OR 1.027, 95% CI 0.089-11.846, p-value .983) were not statistically significant. Conclusion The odds of depression, anxiety, stress and both depression and anxiety were higher among those with IGD as compared to those without IGD. However, it is not statistically significant. This study recommended further validation of the new IGD definition in the local setting and longitudinal studies with a larger population to determine other factors associated with mental disorders.
Adolescent ; Internet ; Depression ; Anxiety

Wearable monitoring, which has the advantages of continuous monitoring for a long time with low physiological and psychological load, represents a future development direction of monitoring technology. Based on wearable physiological monitoring technology, combined with Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence technology, this paper has developed an intelligent monitoring system, including wearable hardware, ward Internet of Things platform, continuous physiological data analysis algorithm and software. We explored the clinical value of continuous physiological data using this system through a lot of clinical practices. And four value points were given, namely, real-time monitoring, disease assessment, prediction and early warning, and rehabilitation training. Depending on the real clinical environment, we explored the mode of applying wearable technology in general ward monitoring, cardiopulmonary rehabilitation, and integrated monitoring inside and outside the hospital. The research results show that this monitoring system can be effectively used for monitoring of patients in hospital, evaluation and training of patients' cardiopulmonary function, and management of patients outside hospital.
Humans ; Artificial Intelligence ; Internet of Things ; Wearable Electronic Devices ; Monitoring, Physiologic/methods* ; Electrocardiography ; Internet

With the development of new technologies such as the Internet, big data, and AI, digital therapy has gradually developed into an emerging sector in digital diagnosis and treatment. Even 6 years after the global development of digital therapy, numerous problems that need to be solved have been identified through research and investigation. Through comparative analysis of the current development status of digital therapy both domestically and internationally, this study proposes opportunities for its development in China from both policy and technology perspectives, as well as corresponding challenges from the perspectives of cognition, classification, and quality. In response to these challenges, it proposes prospects and suggestions for the future development of digital therapy.
China ; Internet ; Technology

Internet of Things plays a vital role in the field of healthcare. Smart medical devices, innovative sensors and lightweight communication protocols are making the Internet of Medical Things possible. This paper summarizes the research progress of Internet of Things technology in medical engineering from two aspects of health monitoring system and ingestible sensor monitoring equipment. The health monitoring system is analyzed from heart disease monitoring, diabetes monitoring and brain nerve monitoring. The medical equipment that can absorb sensors is represented by capsule endoscope. This paper further summarizes the relevant situation of smart hospital, and finally discusses the challenges and countermeasures of the Internet of Things technology in medical engineering, in order to lay the foundation and provide ideas for the research of the Internet of Things technology in medical engineering.
Internet of Things ; Technology ; Internet ; Brain ; Communication

Internet of Things (IoT) technology plays an important role in smart healthcare. This paper discusses IoT solution for emergency medical devices in hospitals. Based on the cloud-edge-device architecture, different medical devices were connected; Streaming data were parsed, distributed, and computed at the edge nodes; Data were stored, analyzed and visualized in the cloud nodes. The IoT system has been working steadily for nearly 20 months since it run in the emergency department in January 2021. Through preliminary analysis with collected data, IoT performance testing and development of early warning model, the feasibility and reliability of the in-hospital emergency medical devices IoT was verified, which can collect data for a long time on a large scale and support the development and deployment of machine learning models. The paper ends with an outlook on medical device data exchange and wireless transmission in the IoT of emergency medical devices, the connection of emergency equipment inside and outside the hospital, and the next step of analyzing IoT data to develop emergency intelligent IoT applications.
Internet of Things ; Reproducibility of Results ; Internet ; Machine Learning ; Technology