Dr Melody Taba

Do #socialmedia #platforms influence academic research?
Little reason to assume they don’t.

They fund research and control data access—amplifying industry influence across the research cycle.

New comment w/ @freiling.bsky.social: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#DataAccess #ResearchIntegrity #DSA

To address social media platforms' influence on academic research, @raffaelheiss.bsky.social and I draw on lessons learned from industry-academy collaborations in other fields. Industry influence can be subtle, so we need policy reforms, plus critical academic debates and clear ethical guidelines.

🔔 This week in InSight+

Why we must invest now in digital health interventions for adolescents

👉 buff.ly/EI5UgRA

Using Social Media for Public Health Communication to Young People: A Qualitative Study to Inform Emergency Preparedness The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the role of social media for official health communication, especially for young people who rarely engage with other public health agency channels. This study expl...

This new study is published in @jhealthcomm.bsky.social ✍️

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

🔹 Research Article
📃 Using Social Media for Public Health Communication to Young People: A Qualitative Study to Inform Emergency Preparedness

Read the full article: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

#JournalofHealthCommunication #JHCUpdates #HealthCommunication #PublicHealth

Thanks so much Krestina! Was great to see you at #digitalhealthweek2026 🤩

Always such a pleasure listening to @melodytaba.bsky.social talk about her work. Such an important project ensuring the voice of young people are not only heard but used to effectively reach them through social media.

AXA Research Fund <div>Supporting Scientific Research to Protect What Matters</div>

Hello World
I wanted to share an update on my project, supported by the AXA Research Fund axa-research.org postdoctoral fellowship. The project aims to identify the optimal characteristics of decentralised social media platforms that foster prosocial digital spaces (promote safe communication)
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“Help young women to survive”: the cost-of-living crisis and the well-being of younger Australian women Abstract. The increased pressures associated with the cost-of-living crisis (CoLC) have been demonstrated to impact population health. Research has shown t

We asked more than 500 women about how the cost of living crisis has affected them. Our findings should be a wakeup call to policymakers, with women reporting they’re struggling to afford basic essentials, food, rent, medication and doctor appointments.

academic.oup.com/heapro/artic...

Health Promotion International | Oxford Academic Publishes papers on major themes and innovations in the health promotion field. The journal publishes contributions from sectors beyond health, and seeks to promote theoretical, methodological, and ac...

Oxford University Press has lifted the paywall on the entire 40 year archive of @healthpromint.bsky.social as part of our flip to fully open access!

Check out the amazing work of our authors - free to read - here:

academic.oup.com/heapro

Tobacco companies targeting gen Z through social media Experts say Australia risks becoming complacent in the war against tobacco, with big companies pivoting to social media to "greenwash" their products to generation Z.

Prof Michelle Jongenelis warns: "Sixty-six Australians die every day from smoking, still to this day... We need to go back to the mass media campaigns that really highlight the dangers of smoking — we've dropped the ball on that."

Read more: www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01...

Presenters in front of slide

Final presenter in the co-design stream!

Dr Amy Von Huben presenting on consumer preferences for digital health technologies for primary healthcare in remote Indigenous Australian communities📱

@digitalhealthweek.bsky.social

Presenters in front of slide

Next: Adnan Asger Ali presenting on organisations perspectives on digital care pathways for people with musculoskeletal conditions living in rural Australia 💪📱

@digitalhealthweek.bsky.social

Presenters in front of slide

Next: Dr Adam Poulsen presenting on attuning digital mental health tools to young Australian voices 📱🧠

@digitalhealthweek.bsky.social
@adampoulsen.bsky.social

Presenters in front of slide

Next: Jemma Mulligan presenting on co-design of digital strategies with rural allied health clinicians in implementing a clinical pathway of care for people with musculoskeletal condition 💪

@digitalhealthweek.bsky.social

Presenters in front of slide

Next up: Tiffany Tsoukalas presenting on co-design of an AI-powered avatar intervention to bridge hospital and home in cancer surgery recovery 🏥

Presenters in front of slide

🗣️Live from the ‘Co-design in Digital Health’ stream!

Georgette Borel & Tariq Isaacs presenting on educational resources for smoking & vaping in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people 🚬
@digitalhealthweek.bsky.social

Dr Naseem Ahmadpour standing in front of her PowerPoint slide

Dr Naseem Ahmadpour in front of slide about our expectations of technologies beyond cure.

V interesting keynote by A/Prof Naseem Ahmadpour, who gave an overview of her work in design & virtual reality (VR) in healthcare.

Naseem calls out the tensions and patient expectations she noticed across her work & strategies to keep interventions person-centred📱

@digitalhealthweek.bsky.social

Conference chairs standing in front of slide with names of organising committee

I’m part of the #DigitalHealthWeek2026 Organising Committee, so you’ll see me sharing some highlights on here, as well as chairing & judging some sessions in person.

Shoutout to the OC & our chairs Drs Julie Ayre & Adeola Bamgboje-Ayodele
@julieayre.bsky.social
@digitalhealthweek.bsky.social

Conference organisers standing in front of a slide that reads “digital health week 2026”

Keen to kick off #DigitalHealthWeek2026 at University of Sydney today!

Looking forward to hearing from researchers, tech & health experts on “Digital Futures: Rethinking Health & Care”📱

@digitalhealthweek.bsky.social @sydney.edu.au @sydneyfmh-emcr.bsky.social @sydneyhealthliteracylab.org.au 🛟 🧪

Mens health influencers can be a load of bollocks - Medical Republic Growing concerns over testosterone and ‘manosphere’ influencers is prompting experts to speak out against misinformation.

“What that’s done is left a real vacuum, and obviously people have come to fill it, and that just happens to be influencers and people with commercial interests,” Senior research fellow from the @uqchsr.bsky.social Dr Piatkowski told The Medical Republic

www.medicalrepublic.com.au/mens-health-...

Social Media Research Toolkit - Social Media Lab The Social Media Research Toolkit is a curated collection of more than 50 tools compiled by researchers at the Social Media Lab.

If you are starting a new social media research project, start here: socialmedialab.ca/apps/social-...

Using Social Media for Public Health Communication to Young People: A Qualitative Study to Inform Emergency Preparedness The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the role of social media for official health communication, especially for young people who rarely engage with other public health agency channels. This study expl...

ICYMI: New #PhD paper out!

We interviewed 10 social media experts from Australian health departments & 11 young people about social media health communication, focussing on #COVID-19 experiences for future preparedness.

Link: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

#AcademicSky #HealthPolicy 🛟 🧪 🦘🎓

In 1922, insulin co-discoverer Frederick Banting refused to profit from the discovery and offered it to the world as a global public good.

Today, many people with diabetes still don't have access to affordable and quality treatment and care.

This work was supported by a global @who.int community of practice
@sydney.edu.au @newsroomusyd.bsky.social @sydneyfmh-emcr.bsky.social @sydneyhealthliteracylab.org.au @carissabonner.bsky.social @kirstenmccaffery.bsky.social @jocelynebasseal.bsky.social

Science translation strategies to the public during health emergencies: A systematic review of RCTs Effective science translation is essential during public health emergencies. During the COVID-19 pandemic, rapidly evolving research had to be transla…

New paper out ✍️

We reviewed 48 #COVID-19 science translation RCTs and found a range of strategies & #BehaviourChange techniques in interventions.

Studies were heterogenous…but using credible sources & interactive formats were effective for science translation

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Science translation strategies to the public during health emergencies: A systematic review of RCTs Effective science translation is essential during public health emergencies. During the COVID-19 pandemic, rapidly evolving research had to be transla…

This paper wraps up my COVID-19 program of work: a systematic review of science translation RCTs in the emergency phase of COVID-19, informed by discussions with a global WHO community of practice www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @newsroomusyd.bsky.social @sydneyhealthliteracylab.org.au

We’re running a new study exploring how young people use AI chatbots like ChatGPT for mental health support. If you’re aged 16-25, live in the UK, and have used AI chatbots for mental health, we’d love to hear from you!! @oxchildpsych.bsky.social @emmasoneson.bsky.social
👉 lnkd.in/eQSRzyej

Thanks Krystal, I’ve now turned on that setting! The image in this post is of me standing in front of a presentation slide titled “social media health communication to youth”

Yes! The opportunity to learn and connect is what makes social media so important.

Hopefully future policy is able to acknowledge the nuances of benefits vs. costs (we recently banned social media for teens under 16 in Australia so this topic has been dominating my discussions also!!)