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In attempts to reduce the spread of COVID-19 among high-risk inflammatory bowel disease patients, many gastroenterology practices have recently gone 'virtual', using telemedicine technologies to care for their patients. In efforts to support this transition and improve approachability, social media platforms have been used to deliver telemedicine services with significant success. However, the patient perspective on this use of social media has largely been ignored. This study provides a baseline patient perspective on social media usage to help inform clinicians on which methods of telemedicine delivery will be best suited to their patient populations.

Chronic hyperglycemia is associated with poor cardiovascular surgical outcomes due to microvascular and macrovascular complications. This is a major concern as over one third of cardiovascular surgical patients have diabetes mellitus which greatly increases their risk of experiencing adverse cardiovascular events. A literature review was performed to identify articles discussing the effects of anti-diabetic medications (ADMs) on cardiovascular outcomes and surgical mortality and morbidity rates. Optimizing perioperative glucose levels remains a key factor in producing good surgical outcomes. In addition, recognizing gender differences, increasing patient satisfaction, and implementing dedicated diabetic teams all improve surgical mortality and morbidity rates in the diabetic population.

cholangitis was observed in 14.9% of WE group and 12.2% of WD group (p=0.54). Intensive care admissions were observed in 5.7% of the WE group and 3.2% in the WD group (p=0.32). 88.3% (n=166) of patients in the WD group and 86.4% (n=76) of patients in the WE group underwent endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) during their admission; with the remaining patients deemed unsuitable to undergo ERCP. 4 patients underwent emergency out of hours ERCP (2 patients from each group). There was no difference between median time from admission to ERCP (WD 5.4 days, WE 4.9 days; p = 0.78) or length of stay (WD 8.1 days vs WE 8.2 days, p=0.98). The 30-day all-cause mortality rate was 3.7% in the WD group and 6.9% in the WE group (p=0.25) and in those who underwent ERCP: 2.4% in the WD group and 3.9% in the WE group (p=0.51). 83.3% of WE deaths and 71.4% of WD deaths were of patients who had cholangitis of malignant aetiology. Conclusions Our data did not demonstrate a clear 'weekend effect' in patients admitted to a tertiary hepatobiliary centre with acute cholangitis, although there was a trend towards increased intensive care admissions and 30-day mortality amongst patients admitted over the weekend. Further studies on a regional or national level may be warranted.