Clinicians' Reports in Electronic Health Records Versus Patients' Concerns in Social Media: A Pilot Study ofAdverse Drug Reactions of Aspirin and Atorvastatin.

Topaz M1,2,3, Lai K4, Dhopeshwarkar N5, Seger DL5,4, Sa'adon R6, Goss F7, Rozenblum R5,8, Zhou L5,8,4.

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Abstract

INTRODUCTION:

Large databases of clinician reported (e.g., allergy repositories) and patient reported (e.g., social media) adverse drug reactions(ADRs) exist; however, whether patients and clinicians report the same concerns is not clear.

OBJECTIVES:

Our objective was to compare electronic health record data and social media data to better understand differences and similarities between clinician-reported ADRs and patients' concerns regarding aspirin and atorvastatin.

METHODS:

This pilot study explored a large repository of electronic health record data and social media data for clinician-reported ADRs and patients concerns for two common medications: aspirin (n = 31,817 ADRs accessible in clinical data; n = 19,186 potential ADRs accessible in socialmedia data) and atorvastatin (n = 15,047 ADRs accessible in clinical data; n = 23,408 potential ADRs accessible in social media data).

RESULTS:

We found that the most frequently reported ADRs matched the most frequent patients' concerns. However, several less frequently reported reactions were more prevalent on social media (i.e., aspirin-induced hypoglycemia was discussed only on social media). Overall, we found a relatively strong positive and statistically significant correlation between the frequency ranking of reactions and patients' concerns for atorvastatin(Pearson's r = 0.61, p < 0.001) but not for aspirin (Pearson's r = 0.1, p = 0.69).

CONCLUSION:

Future studies should develop further natural language methods for a more detailed data analysis (i.e., identifying causality and temporal aspects in the social media data).