Physiotalk: Connectedness and constructive change – An explanatory theory

Abstract

Physiotalk was launched in December 2013 with its main purpose being to help physiotherapists learn, share, influence and ultimately improve services for patients and communities through fortnightly tweetchats and related blogs. A tweetchat is defined as a formalised discussion held via Twitter at a set time on a predefined topic with questions tweeted out at regular intervals and bound by the use of a common hashtag; in this instance #physiotalk. Physiotalk tweetchats are held fortnightly and promoted through www.physiotalk.co.uk, Twitter and Facebook. The tweetchats can be hosted by Physiotalk or by a guest host who has a specific interest in a topic. In 2016 an investigation of the reach of Physiotalk was carried out using publicly available analytical tools which demonstrated the reach of this digital community both within the UK and globally. In two years Physiotalk had gained 12,592 followers from 113 countries and hosted 61 tweetchats with up to 99 people participating in each chat (Thomas et al 2016). There was a need to explore further beyond these metrics to look at the impact of participating in a Physiotalk tweetchat on the participants, with particular reference to continuing professional development (CPD).