Having been involved with the HARTS project from the start it is clear to me that this project isn't about a room full of 'experts' telling others what to think - this is about developing a way forward for social media and research, exploring the possibilities and potential and doing this with a whole internet full of experts.  

I was pleased to see that people like the HARTS starting point:

There were some really positive comments made:

The Rainbow Prism Model was developed as a starting point from a flurry of thinking from a group of people, it was great that during the discussion people raised some excellent points about how it could be developed.  The Mental Elf's suggestion really resonated with me as I think that engagement is key in social media spaces and there is clearly some application here to research in social media spaces:

@DrBeth_ tweeted an interesting point about adding scope for patients asking questions:

Whilst she has a very valid point i think i would like to take this one step further and think about anyone asking questions.  The Rainbow Prism Model currently concentrates on one side of the social media and research coin however i think that this point flips that coin over to reveal another side.  How do we encourage questions and curiosity about research? How do we encourage the sharing of evidence gaps and problems needing resolutions? How do we open up dialogue between the researchers and the wider population? Its essential we explore both sides of the coin. 

There were also lots of comments around recruitment:

This is perhaps another key aspect that the Rainbow Prism Model is missing and one that needs to be addressed.  Maybe there is something here about the more we put research out there the more accessible it becomes and recruitment may follow ? Lots more discussion and thinking needed but good to have recruitment in mind. 

There were a few project shared during the discussion:

Part of HARTS work is to showcase what can be done - the first blog to do this was recently published "Sharing research through social media: the peripheral venous catheters story from Cochrane UK" using a template to really get to the heart of the project:

We hope to do more of this so if anyone who shared their project during the discussion wants to come forward and showcase what they did that would really help us to start to understand and share the possibilities.

Social media and research is a subject that traditionally we may not have put together ... however the more and more i think about it the more I come to realise that it is a match made in heaven.  The discussion will really help to shape HARTS ideas and the way forward for social media in health research - we hope that this is just the start and are looking forward to continuing to share and shape ideas together.