Is it just me or is the pharmacy presence on Twitter growing?

My daughter had a three-day volleyball tournament over the weekend. While there’s a lot of action during these tournaments, there’s also some downtime. I usually pass the downtime by reading through my social media streams. I have a system that typically goes something like this: Twitter –> Google+ –> Facebook –> LinkedIn –> RSS-feed-reader-of-the-week –> start over.

This weekend I found myself clicking on, and reading, a lot more pharmacy related Tweets than usual.

Is it just me or is Twitter finally starting to come alive with pharmacist that provide valuable content? Feels like it, and that’s good.

— Jerry Fahrni (@JFahrni) May 27, 2013

When I first started playing around with Twitter a few years back the pharmacy landscape was barren. I tried following pharmacists, but typically stopped because most of the pharmacy people at the time were whinny retail guys that hated their lives almost as much as they hated pharmacy. Of course there were exceptions such as Dave Walker (@drwalker_RPH). Dave’s been a rock-solid staple of information since the beginning.

I tried trimming out the crap by creating a pharmacy related list - a place where I could quickly go to see all pharmacy related information at once – but my use of lists has never been good. I can never remember to look at my lists, which makes them virtually useless.

Recently, however, I’ve found a resurgence(?) of pharmacy related people on Twitter worth following. My criteria for following someone on Twitter is really quite simple. If they provide valuable information, i.e. I’m willing to click on a link they provide, then I follow them; if not I don’t. Told you it was simple.

Based on my criteria, here’s some people worth looking at for pharmacy specific information:

Dave Walker (@drwalker_RPH) – Dave is probably the most prolific Tweeting pharmacist on the ‘net, and he consistently throws out valuable content.

Honest Apothecary (@jasonpoquette – http://www.thehonestapothecary.com/) – I’m not entirely sure, but I think Jason is a retail pharmacist. Go figure. Don’t hold it against him though, his Tweets are both thoughtful and worthwhile.

Brent Reed, PharmD (@brentnreed – http://reedb.blogspot.com/) – Based on Brent’s Twitter feed and blog topics I would wager that he’s practicing in a hospital somewhere. Nothing wrong with a little clinical Twitter goodness.

Pharmacy Podcast (@PharmacyPodcast – http://www.pharmacypodcast.com/) – Not operated by a pharmacist per se, but definitely supports the profession. I find myself following quite a few links embedded in these Tweets.

The two Twitter accounts below belong to “throw-away” journals, but you know something, I find their content relevant, timely and valuable. You simply can’t say that about a lot of pharmacy journals these days. Some of the other “professional” journals could take a page from these guys.

Pharmacy Times (@Pharmacy_Times – http://www.pharmacytimes.com)

Pharmacy Practice News (@PharmPracNews – http://www.pharmacypracticenews.com)