Use of Social Media in the Practice of Medicine

Connell, Nathan T.; Weyand, Angela C.; Barnes, Geoffrey D.

doi:10.1016/j.amjmed.2021.08.030

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Social media has been well established as an “important tool for scientific collaboration, education, advocacy, patient engagement, and improved patient care” [ 5 ]. In the early days of online advocacy, message forums were used to effectively build early networks of healthcare providers [ 6 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Scoping Review of Physician Advocacy on Twitter

Cahill¹,

Carlson²

2023

Cureus

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Twitter has been adopted by physicians across most medical specialties; it allows for the wide dissemination of information and calls to action, brings new stakeholders into collations, promotes academic engagement, and fosters collaboration between academia and private practice. In this review of the literature, we briefly outline the state of advocacy in health care and summarize current Twitter-based advocacy efforts in the major specialties of health care, identifying both successful strategies as well as gaps in Twitter advocacy research. Relevant articles were obtained via PubMed and Google Scholar searches using the phrases “Twitter advocacy healthcare,” “[specialty name] Twitter” and “[specialty name] Twitter advocacy.” Several overarching themes were found to be widely utilized in specialty-specific discussions of Twitter advocacy efforts: organizing under a specific hashtag, fostering dialogue between stakeholders, and tweeting using personalized, action-oriented language. Fields such as pediatrics, heme/onc, ENT, and ophthalmology have most thoroughly embraced the desire to learn how to most effectively advocate on Twitter. Other fields such as OBGYN, cardiology, and surgery have less academic focus on online advocacy. Outside of advocacy efforts, the research and academic benefits of Twitter are well described in nearly every specialty. In conclusion, while clinicians are encouraged to advocate online, only broad strategies for online engagement are currently offered. Additional research into the details of how to successfully create an online profile and Twitter presence is needed to ensure all physicians are able to maximize their advocacy efforts, with clarification of the goals and objectives of this engagement also required.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Scoping Review of Physician Advocacy on Twitter

Cahill¹,

Carlson²

2023

Cureus

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“…More than 40% of healthcare consumers report using social media to obtain healthcare information, 1 and a growing number of physicians and researchers are using social media for professional purposes, including hematologists. [2][3][4] Concurrently, disease advocacy groups use social media as an education and promotion platform. 5 The use of social media usage among chronic disease communities has been studied in the context of multiple chronic diseases, including cancer, 6 diabetes 7 and hearing loss, 8 The use of social media for chronic disease has been found to have positive social and emotional support-related outcomes [9][10][11] and to promote adaptive health behaviours, such as increased physical activity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The global proliferation of social media has important implications for healthcare. More than 40% of healthcare consumers report using social media to obtain healthcare information, 1 and a growing number of physicians and researchers are using social media for professional purposes, including hematologists 2–4 . Concurrently, disease advocacy groups use social media as an education and promotion platform 5 …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digital haemophilia: Insights into the use of social media for haemophilia care, research and advocacy

2022

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Introduction The haemophilia community on Twitter is diverse, consisting of advocacy groups, patients, physicians, researchers and other users. However, the scope of this community is uncharacterized, and limited data is available regarding effective participation in this community. Aim To assess the types of users active in the haemophilia community on Twitter, as well as major themes present in haemophilia‐related tweets. Methods Forty‐nine thousand five hundred and twelve tweets between September 2019 and September 2021 were classified using regular expressions. A subset of the classified tweets was manually analysed to identify prevalent discussion themes. Results Among the top 250 users by post count, the largest categories of users were support and advocacy groups, people with bleeding disorders and healthcare providers. The largest thematic categories of tweets were gene therapy, contaminated haemophilia blood products, haemophilia research, clinical management of haemophilia and COVID‐19. While misinformation was rare, negative and incorrect perceptions of haemophilia were present among the general public. Conclusion Our results demonstrate patterns of effective Twitter usage for patient care, research and advocacy purposes among the haemophilia community.

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Emerging Educational and Networking Platforms in Interventional Cardiology: Expanding Beyond Traditional Social Media

Bharadwaj,

Cader,

Goldsweig

et al. 2024

Cathet Cardio Intervent

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With ubiquitous use of smartphones and other Internet‐enabled devices, clinicians have access to a plethora of multimedia platforms that enable them to network, share educational content, and learn. Several platforms also enable resources that support clinical decision making. Traditional social media has been used extensively by cardiologists for several years and now extends to the entire care team including trainees, advanced practitioners, nurses and technologists. Numerous challenges include concerns about patient privacy and security, lack of peer‐review and organization, and chances of propagating misinformation. More recently, newer networking platforms have emerged within cardiology to overcome several of the limitations of traditional social media. Additionally, mobile applications have emerged as an educational tool that provides clinicians with easy access to the latest information including guidelines, consensus documents, risk estimators and treatment algorithms. These point‐of‐care learning and decision‐making tools are especially relevant and impactful in a procedural field like interventional cardiology. While professional societies are major drivers of these emerging platforms, there are also other stakeholders including educational institutions and the medical device industry. In this review article, we examine the role of traditional social media and describe newer networking platforms as well as mobile applications applicable to interventional cardiology with a discussion about their relative advantages and disadvantages.

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Use of Social Media in the Practice of Medicine

Cited by 3 publications

References 16 publications

A Scoping Review of Physician Advocacy on Twitter

A Scoping Review of Physician Advocacy on Twitter

Digital haemophilia: Insights into the use of social media for haemophilia care, research and advocacy

Emerging Educational and Networking Platforms in Interventional Cardiology: Expanding Beyond Traditional Social Media

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