Introduction Of #Pancchat: A Novel Twitter Platform To Inform And Engage The Pancreatic Cancer Community.

242Background: Twitter provides a platform for health care stakeholders to disseminate information about diseases to patients, caregivers, and doctors. Chats are especially effective because participants can interact directly with experts. Pancreatic cancer (PC) conversations on Twitter previously were sporadic and inconsistent. The authors report the creation of #PancChat, a first-of-its-kind Tweet Chat developed to provide relevant, credible, and timely information to the PC community. A collaboration between leading PC organizations, a pharmaceutical company, and an academic oncologist, PancChat is an example of successful outreach using an accessible communications tool. Methods: Launched in April 2016, the hour-long monthly chat is a live event publicized and promoted through multiple social media channels and major news outlets. It is moderated and focused around a pre-selected topic. The hashtag #PancChat is used to filter specific chatter into a single conversation. Participants include patients, ...