Twitter’s short, fast-paced style is a good match for the torrent of news and stories about COVID-19. Tweeting takes a little practice but joining is easy and the platform is flexible.

During the pandemic, many are using Twitter to monitor late-breaking news, disseminate lessons learned, find training tools, and connect with others at a time of high stress. Clinicians and staff share stories and offer each other support with brief messages, photographs and links to articles.

Twitter has gained acceptance among health care professionals and institutions, but caution is advised. It is an open platform; tweets are visible to all as public speech. Check with your organization, professional association, or the Massachusetts Medical Society for policies or recommendations on using social media. The privacy of patients and their information must always be protected.

Go to Twitter for help getting started. Once you’ve joined, you can find relevant topics by hashtag. #COVID19 is a very popular one; likely too popular to help you zero in on what you need. Instead, consider following people and organizations you trust. Search on Twitter to find their usernames.

See our twitter feed @BetsyLehmanCtr for a pinned post with some relevant usernames to get you started.