The Top 100 Twitter Influencers in Infectious Diseases

Abstract

Healthcare professionals in infectious diseases have been using Twitter to disseminate knowledge and interact with other professionals. This study aimed to identify and characterize the top 100 Twitter influencers in infectious diseases and to analyze the correlation between Twitter and academic influence. The Right Relevance Application Programming Interface was used to search for the term "infectious diseases," producing a Twitter topic score for the top 100 infectious disease influencers. The influencers' Hirsch index (h-index) was compared with their Twitter topic score for a possible correlation. We identified that 46% of the infectious disease influencers were physicians. A correlation between the Twitter topic score of the infectious disease influencers and their h-index was not identified (r = 0.123, P = 0.22). The study also provides a list of the infectious disease influencers for those who have an interest in engaging and interacting with them on Twitter.