The millennial generation plastic surgery trainees in sub-Saharan Africa and social media: A review of the application of blogs, podcasts, and twitter as web-based learning tools

Abstract

The delivery of education and training in plastic surgery in Sub-Saharan Africa face increasing challenges. These include endemic shortages of plastic surgeons within postgraduate medical school faculties, the erosion of financial and clinical resources for teaching, and more recently, the millennial generation paradigm shift. It is generally accepted that the millennial generation will be more discerning and comfortable in their requirements for web-based learning content to support their education and training in plastic surgery. We reviewed current literature including original and review articles obtained through a search of PubMed database, Medline, Google Scholar, and hand searching of bibliographies of published articles using the keywords: social media, Blogs, Twitter, plastic surgery, and millennial generation. This article defines and explores Blogs, Podcasts, and Twitter, as web-based learning tools, and discusses how to leverage social media to maximize their educational value and effectiveness.

The Effect and Implication of Social Media Platforms on Plastic Cosmetic Surgery: A Cross-sectional Study in Saudi Arabia From 2021 to 2022

“…While studying the differences between the millennials and the generations before them, it has become clear that their characteristics are uniform. 14 A study identified trends in using online reviews among plastic surgeons who performed gender confirming surgeries in the United States and assessed the influence of SM and other factors on online reviews that were obtained from 3 of the most popular physician-rating websites (HealthGrades.com [Denver, CO], Vitals.com [Lyndhurst, NJ], and WebMD.com [New York, NY]). Online ratings and comments were compared with age, years of practice, academic appointment, type of practice, geographic region of practice, SM use, and indexed articles.…”

Social media in surgery: evolving role in research communication and beyond

“…Surgical blogs have experienced a recent renaissance [ 22 , 23 ]. Blogging is a good vehicle for topics not covered in traditional scientific literature and that require a more extensive coverage than the short format proposed on the other platforms.…”