Inside Chronic Autoimmune Disease Communities

Abstract

Anonymity, speed and big data are all ingredients at the basis of an intense online medical information prosumerism supported by search-engines, websites, forums and social networks. Fostering reliable medical ecosystems requires an exploitation of such data, controlling quality and delineating user behaviors. This strongly emerges with chronic patients: they are expected to devote a long use of the Internet on the same health topics; nonetheless a limited amount of research has investigated their online resources and behavior. We uncover the role of online social networks for a growing community of chronic patients: Crohn's disease patients. Our contribution is twofold: (a) we characterize the data exchanged by Crohn's patients, (b) while analyzing how they deal with given topics of medical interest. In particular, of great medical relevance is the result that Infliximab is the treatment that mostly influences the Crohn's patient community sentiments. We are confident our analysis of the health heritage exchanged online can help improve Crohn's patients' experience, exceeding the traditional practices that typically concentrate on individuals rather than on communities.