There was something going on in the virtual world that was not readily apparent if you strolled around the Anaheim Convention Center at the 2010 ASHP Midyear Clinical Meeting. A group of attendees were quietly tweeting to the meeting hashtag, #ASHPMidyear, to share information with other meeting attendees and let their twitter followers know what they were up to. Their entries made them eligible for the second ASHP Midyear Twitter Contest, which saw nearly a threefold increase in the number of attendees tweeting this year with more than 1500 tweets posted about the meeting.

With 140 characters or less to express themselves per tweet, Midyear Tweeters announced what interested them at Midyear, shared major learning points, asked and answered questions, shared pictures, and created some good- natured banter back and forth. A survey conducted of the tweeters shows that tweeting at the meeting added a little something special to their Midyear experience. The survey also showed that they ran the spectrum from novice to experienced Twitter users and it was about 50/50 tie between those that had and had not tweeted to an event hashtag before.

The winners of the 2009 contest, Jerry Fahrni and Amy Baker, once again tweeted their way to victory.  Jerry, an IT pharmacist who practices in Fresno, Calif., is a member of the ASHP Section of Pharmacy Informatics and Technology. Amy is a member of the New Practitioners Forum and is a pharmacy resident in Maui, Hawaii. Jerry and Amy also blogged about their Midyear experiences and were able to effectively use Twitter as a platform to announce new blog posts while all eyes were on the Midyear hashtag.

The Twitter contest also included a separate category for ASHP staff, and the winners were also experienced tweeters.  Mary Andrawis, director of Clinical Guidelines and Quality Improvement, and Karl Gumpper, director of the ASHP Section of Pharmacy Informatics and Technology; both won the Twitter staff awards at the 2010 ASHP Summer Meeting.

Tweeters had an opportunity to cast their votes for both the attendee and staff categories and their votes combined with an ASHP panel of judges, determined the contest outcome. All winners receive a $50 gift card, a customized twitter winner mug, and an icon for their website or blog.

Pictures shared by attendees in their tweets were combined into a “Twitpic Midyear Photo Album” set to music. A special thanks to members of the Pharmacy Student Forum whose members were very generous in sharing their Midyear photos!

Twitter is quickly becoming a great way to be “in the know” about ASHP’s top initiatives. Follow #ASHPSM for updates about the 2011 ASHP Summer Meeting, June 12-15 in Denver and #PPMI to learn more about the ASHP-ASHP Foundation Pharmacy Practice Model Initiative.