Use of social media to engage membership of a state health-system pharmacy organization.

PURPOSE: The influence of targeted strategies implemented to increase member engagement on a social media page of a professional pharmacy organization was studied. METHODS: The Ohio Society of Health-System Pharmacists (OSHP) implemented posting strategies to increase member engagement with its social media page in late 2013. Data were collected retrospectively for a nine-month period in 2013 (preimplementation) and a matching nine-month period in 2014 (postimplementation). The primary endpoint was reach (as provided by the social media website). Data regarding reach were reported to OSHP page administrators on a weekly basis. Posts during the study period were characterized by the day of week, time of day, type of post, and corresponding reach. Continuous variables were represented using means and standard deviations or medians and interquartile ranges (IQRs); categorical data were represented by percentages. RESULTS: The total reach of posts during the nine-month study period increased postimplementation, from 10,826 to 32,338. Further, the median reach per post on the OSHP Facebook page was higher postimplementation (214; IQR, 107-380) versus preimplementation (152; IQR, 89-224; p = 0.035). Evening posts had significantly greater reach compared with nonevening posts. The median reach for evening posts was 232 (IQR, 143-378) versus 131 (IQR, 77-200) for nonevening posts (p < 0.001). There was no significant difference in the median reach of weekday posts (179.5; IQR, 85.5-339.5) versus weekend posts (192; IQR, 113-252). Posts with photos or pictures had the highest reach of all post types. CONCLUSION: Implementation of targeted strategies resulted in an increase in the number of users reached by a state health-system pharmacy organization's social media page.

Cigarette smoke exposure during pregnancy alters fetomaternal cell trafficking leading to retention of microchimeric cells in the maternal lung.

Cigarette smoke exposure causes chronic oxidative lung damage. During pregnancy, fetal microchimeric cells traffic to the mother. Their numbers are increased at the site of acute injury. We hypothesized that milder chronic diffuse smoke injury would attract fetal cells to maternal lungs. We used a green-fluorescent-protein (GFP) mouse model to study the effects of cigarette smoke exposure on fetomaternal cell trafficking. Wild-type female mice were exposed to cigarette smoke for about 4 weeks and bred with homozygote GFP males. Cigarette smoke exposure continued until lungs were harvested and analyzed. Exposure to cigarette smoke led to macrophage accumulation in the maternal lung and significantly lower fetal weights. Cigarette smoke exposure influenced fetomaternal cell trafficking. It was associated with retention of GFP-positive fetal cells in the maternal lung and a significant reduction of fetal cells in maternal livers at gestational day 18, when fetomaternal cell trafficking peaks in the mouse model. Cells quickly clear postpartum, leaving only a few, difficult to detect, persisting microchimeric cells behind. In our study, we confirmed the postpartum clearance of cells in the maternal lungs, with no significant difference in both groups. We conclude that in the mouse model, cigarette smoke exposure during pregnancy leads to a retention of fetal microchimeric cells in the maternal lung, the site of injury. Further studies will be needed to elucidate the effect of cigarette smoke exposure on the phenotypic characteristics and function of these fetal microchimeric cells, and confirm its course in cigarette smoke exposure in humans.