ASCO24 is almost upon us and the digital opinion leaders in lung cancer are among the most engaged group of clinical scientists across medicine. It's really amazing how these specialists have used X, Substack, and Youtube to create an open environment for sharing clinical trial knowledge. KOL Pulse AI has tracked engagement by U.S. physicians with key clinical trial discussions over the last year. Each tweet was curated, then Likes and Retweets were matched to physician profiles from the CMS OpenPayments database (OUS physicians are not included in this dataset). The result is a Physician only clout score for Lung Cancer opinion leaders. The KOL PulseScore has two components. The first is physician engagement measured in Likes, retweets, and mentions by their peers. The second component of the KOL PulseScore is activity measured by their tweets, replies, and their liking and retweeting of their peers' content. The goal of the KOL PulseScore is to measure both influence and community outreach by physician opinion leaders. Below is a great list of physicians to follow at #ASCO24. If you'd like the complete list, please click here.
Dr. Nathan Pennell, an oncologist from Cleveland Clinic, has been a pioneer of digital thought leadership in medicine. He and Dr. Jack West have used Twitter and now X as a platform to connect and share ideas with their peers for about a decade. Dr. Pennell also appears on YouTube and engages in Podcasts and other digital discussions with his peers. At last year's ASCO23, he engaged in a great debate with Dr. Jack West regarding the ADAURA trial. Recently he brought up some great questions regarding patient selection in the PACIFIC-2 clinical trial, and engaged PI Dr. Jeff Bradley in a helpful discussion regarding the differences between PACIFIC and PACIFIC-2. At ESMO23, Dr. Pennell's poster, coauthored with Dr. Muthusamy, on the cost-effectiveness of CHECKMATE 816 generated significant attention from his peers. Dr. Pennell frequently interacts with his peers' tweets, and engages in thoughtful discussions, openly sharing his opinions in very professional debates.
As mentioned above, Dr. West was a pioneer of digital thought leadership in medicine. He had always been one of the most engaged physicians on Twitter and he engaged well with his peers on video. He created a very helpful digital platform for both clinicians and patients with CancerGrace. He's also been very actively involved in YouTube videos on peer platforms, often engaging as a guest speaker. He recently took a role with Summit Therapeutics, leaving City of Hope, and his level of digital discussion has dropped since then. During #ASCO23 his discussions on ADAURA, KEYNOTE-671 and LUNAR generated significant Peer Engagement.
Dr. Halmos is an extremely engaging physician on X, with his very unique style. Often using memes and puns, Dr. Halmos adds a bit of levity to the very important data discussions of his peer group. A research oncologist from Montefiore, Dr. Halmos effectively shares this viewpoints on the real world applicability of clinical trial data. He's well respected by his peers, getting significant engagement from many of his noteworthy discussions. He also does a great job recognizing the efforts of other researchers.
Dr. Patrick Forde is a research oncologist at Johns Hopkins University and PI of the CHECKMATE 816 FDA registration clinical trial. He is extremely engaged on X with his peers' content during key clinical trial discussions and his comments have very high amounts of peer engagement from the specialist community. Dr. Forde's presentations are very well received by his peers and he sets a great example on social media of supporting his peers' research achievements. Dr. Forde's tweet about his PACIFIC-2 insights generated a great discussion with Dr. Filippi from University of Milan. This is an example of the engagement his commentary receives from lung cancer specialists across the globe.
Dr. Charu Aggarwal is a research oncologist at Penn Medicine and is a very active member of the Lung Cancer Social Media Community. She also does a very good job engaging with her peers' content and is very selective with voicing her opinions on key clinical trials. However, when she does share her opinion, her peers are very engaged. Dr. Aggarwal's discussions on ADAURA, PAPILLON, and LAURA trials all generated significant engagement from her peers. She also had the courage to discuss the "Cure" word in the management of patients with EGFRmut Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, in the ADAURA trial discussions.
Dr. Brendon Stiles is a thoracic surgeon at Montefiore Einstein in NYC. He is perhaps the leading voice in thoracic surgery in the lung cancer community. As data from LAURA and PACIFIC-2 were released, he led the social media discussions on these trials. Dr. Stiles isn't afraid to mix it up with his peers on X, and does a great job of keeping the arguments tied to the data. He stirred up significant debate with the radiation oncology community with regards to the PACIFIC-2 discussion. Dr. Stiles tweetorial on the MAR-2 clinical trial (studying surgery in Mesothelioma) also generated significant discussion by surgeons, oncologists, and radiation oncologists from around the globe.
Dr. Sandip Patel, a research oncologist from UCSD, has engaged with most every major lung cancer clinical trial discussion on X over the last year. While he doesn't usually lead the discussions, he's probably the leader in peer outreach on social media in this community. Dr. Patel likes and retweets much of the content of his peers and also does a great job engaging through replies with his peers. Dr. Patel's replies regarding ADAURA, PAPILLiON, and LUNAR trials all generated significant engagement from his peers. It's a great example of the importance of every reply on a timeline, because physician peers are learning from these open discussions. These replies are often overlooked by the X algos and don't generate many views or impressions. However, they add significant value to the discussions.
Dr. Ryckman is a radiation oncologist practicing at West Virginia University. He is a very active member of the Lung Cancer social media discussions and plays a leadership role in the radiation oncology social media community. His discussions regarding major Lung Cancer trials have generated significant engagement from his peers, notably ADAURA, KEYNOTE-671, CHECKMATE 816, LAURA, and PACIFIC-2. He is a very outspoken critic of clinical trials that do not seem to provide the control arm patients with the appropriate standards of care.
Dr. Eric Singhi is an oncologist at MD Anderson Cancer Center and is a very active member of the Lung Cancer Social Media Community. He actively tweets during the major lung cancer presentations and generates significant engagement from his peers. Dr. Singhi shares a lot of selfies with his peers and seems to be a very popular member of the lung cancer research community. His timeline has great positive energy and compassion for lung cancer patients. He also actively engages with the tweets of his peers, demonstrating exceptional support for his colleagues on X. He also shares not only data highlights but also his clinical opinions of the trial data.
View the complete list of Lung Cancer Physician Influencers in the U.S.