Using Instagram as a tool to enhance anatomy learning at two US dental schools

#Anatomynotes: A temporal content analysis of anatomy education posts on Instagram

Social media platforms such as Instagram are becoming increasingly popular sources for students to access anatomy educational resources. This review used content analysis to examine posts under the hashtag #anatomynotes and is the first to map the characteristics of anatomy education posts on Instagram and determine any temporal changes. Sample posts were gathered from April 2019 and April 2021 and categorized according to the technical format, purpose and author credentials. Engagement was recorded in the form of likes and comments. Overall, posts depicting illustrations remained the most popular format within both time periods. Three-dimensional models saw an increase in popularity with a 62.5% rise. Students remained the most common author type throughout and increased further in 2021 by 25%. Clinician authors and posts focusing on clinical education also increased in 2021 by 17.9% and 227%, respectively. Humor-based posts saw the greatest increase among the post purposes, with 1000% more recorded in 2021. Engagement overall saw a decline with notably significant reductions in average likes per post among all text-based posts (-72%, p < 0.0001), all illustrative posts (-51%, p = 0.0013), and a decline in the presence of comments among all text-based posts (-65.1%, p = 0.0158). These findings highlight that Instagram is a popular platform for facilitating near-peer teaching while increasingly providing a space where students and clinicians can interact. Additionally, it highlights the benefits of the platform for visually focused learners. However, future research should seek to determine whether Instagram can facilitate deeper learning and have an impact on academic and clinical performance.

Utilizing Instagram as a novel method for dermatopathology instruction

Instagram provides an accessible and interactive platform for the dissemination of medical knowledge. The Instagram platform is ideally curated for intrinsically visual specialties such as dermatopathology. The described methodology highlights Instagram’s expansive scope and potential to promote active learning in dermatopathology education. Eastern Virginia Medical School’s Instagram page @evmsdermatology provides a novel case framework for further reproducibility throughout similar medical specialties.

Reaching a Wider Audience: Instagram's Role in Dairy Cow Nutrition Education and Engagement

The paper presents an overview of the usage of Instagram as a social media platform for teaching and engagement in the field of dairy cow nutrition and management. Our Instagram content, which includes posts, stories, hashtags, reels, and live videos, aims to educate and engage our followers and covers a wide range of topics, including research updates, student activities, and information on dairy cow health and welfare. This approach to education allows us to reach a larger audience while also providing a forum for interaction and discussion on essential dairy cow nutrition concerns.

Using Instagram Stories to supplement a required self-care pharmacy course

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Social media is widely used among Americans, with Instagram being especially popular in adults under age 30. There are few examples of the use of Instagram in pharmacy education and no reports of student perspectives on using Instagram to supplement self-care pharmacy coursework. This article describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of a teaching innovation using Instagram Stories to supplement a required self-care course.

EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY AND SETTING

The instructors of Self-Care Therapeutics created an Instagram account to share content as an optional supplement to course topics. The account shares stories featuring real-time questions from friends and family of the instructors, product and device demonstrations, and discussion of current events or news related to over-the-counter products. An anonymous survey was sent to all students at the semester conclusion to gain student perceptions of the posted content. A focus group was conducted to further interpret the survey data.

FINDINGS

Of the 89 students enrolled, 51 completed the survey and 30 students followed the course account. Students agreed that the account was helpful for reinforcing information from class and provided information beyond what was discussed in class, but they had mixed perceptions of its utility for exam preparation and application to real life.

SUMMARY

Use of Instagram Stories as an alternative method to supplement content in a required self-care course is feasible and received well by students. Use of social media could improve perceived relevance of course topics to students.

Influence of the use of social media on patients changing dental practice: a web-based questionnaire study

BACKGROUND

Recent years have seen an increase in the use of social media, by the healthcare sector, including dentistry. Indeed, social media may now be important communication tools for dental practices and patients. This work analyzes the influence of patient (male and female) use of dental practice social media on their decision to change practice. The results also provide insight into the factors patients considered important when choosing a dental practice.

METHODS

This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Universidad Europea de Madrid (No. CIPI/22.022). Using a web-based questionnaire, a cross-sectional study was undertaken involving a Spanish population that made use of dental services. The questionnaire consisted of four parts covering provision of informed consent, the collection of sociodemographic data, patient use of dental practice social media, and the factors considered important when changing dental practice.

RESULTS

All participants gave their informed consent regarding inclusion. No compensation was provided for participation. 588 people responded to the questionnaire, of whom 503 were eligible for inclusion. Most respondents were female (312/503; 62%). Most (151/503; 30%) last changed dental practice during the previous 2-5 years. 208/503 (41.4%) indicated that they had visited dental practice social media. 118/503 (23.5%) indicated that they had made use of such the last time they changed dental practice; 102 of these 118 (85.6%) reported their experience to have influenced their decision to change. Respondents who had changed practice in the last 5 years had interacted with dental practice social media more than those who changed over 11 years ago (p < .05), and those who changed practice in the present/past year were more influenced by these media (p < .05). The factor considered most important was 'Facilities and technology'. No gender-based differences were seen for any measured variable (p < .05).

CONCLUSIONS

Different factors affect the selection of a new dental practice, but respondents who changed practice in the last few years were more likely to have made use of dental practice social media, which, for some, influenced their final decision to change. Dental practices might do well to consider using social media as communication and marketing tools.

Usage of Student-Created Anatomical Diagrams Shared on Social Media

Social media (SoMe) is a resource for electronic materials in medical education, but has been particularly relevant for anatomy education due to the visual nature of the discipline. Although the distribution of expert/faculty-created anatomy content has been documented, the usefulness of novice/student-created content distributed via SoMe remains undetermined. To address this, original anatomical diagrams (n = 127) created by a novice educator were disseminated via the Anatomy Adventures Instagram account and evaluated for their usefulness. Audience engagement was evaluated using descriptive statistics, with a mean number of likes for all posts (n = 61) of 62.54 + 15.70. Statistically significant differences in the number of likes across content topics were assessed using a Kruskal-Wallis test (H(41.09) = 4, p < 0.005). An 11-item survey (10.6% response rate) explored the (1) population demographics, (2) diagram utility, and (3) suggestions for improvement. Responses were converted to percent frequencies and assessed with chi-square. Descriptive codes were applied to open-ended responses according to published methods. Of the 111 survey responses, 95% of participants were 18-30 years, with the majority of participants being medical students (69.3%), undergraduate/graduate students (16.2%), and fully employed (12.6%). Participants report using the diagrams to study for coursework or board examinations (54%), while non-medical use (42.4%) included leisure viewing or reviewing for their occupation. The usefulness of the diagrams was attributed to their (1) simplicity (43%), (2) style (24.6%), and (3) color-coding (12.3%) (p = 0.0025). These data indicate that Instagram may be utilized by novice educators to provide accurate and accessible resources.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40670-023-01736-9.

Factor analysis of risk perceptions of using digital and social media in dental education and profession

PURPOSE

This study explored how dental students and dental professionals perceive risks of using digital and social media (DSM) in a dental professional context and validated a questionnaire to measure DSM perceived risks specifically among dental students and dental professionals.

METHODS

A cross-sectional survey study was carried out amongst dental students (undergraduate and postgraduate) and dental professionals at a dental school in the UK. Data were collected using a 38-item questionnaire developed using interviews, experts' evaluation, and previous perceived risks studies of internet services and social media. Risk factors were identified using exploratory factor analysis (EFA). The internal consistency of the extracted factors was determined by Cronbach's α-coefficient reliability test.

RESULTS

A total of 301 dental students and dental professionals completed the questionnaire. EFA identified eight factors perceived by dental students and professionals as critical to their DSM use. Some identified perceived risks were associated with all DSM users in the general context (e.g., personal privacy, and negative impact on self-image), but others were specific to the dental professional context (e.g., breaches of patients' confidentiality, public deception, and reputational damage). The identified factors explained 63.55% of the variance with eigenvalues >1. Cronbach's alpha for the total questionnaire was 0.9.

CONCLUSIONS

This study data has deepened the understanding of perceived risks that influence dental students and professionals' DSM use. This will help develop education, training, and guidance to mitigate and manage the risks associated with DSM use in the dental professional context.

A multi-site intervention using influencers to communicate about syringe service programmes

Introduction

In the USA, syringe services programmes (SSPs) provide a range of harm reduction services and have numerous benefits for communities. However, stigma, misconceptions about SSPs and changing policies/legislation remain a challenge to effective implementation. This study reviews the implementation of two digital interventions, Appalachian Influence and Shared Influence, which used social media influencers and digital volunteers to communicate positive information about harm reduction and SSPs.

Methods

The intervention was designed to deliver accurate and supportive messaging in locally relevant and meaningful ways. Messaging was informed by interviews with subject matter experts and community organisations, and was integrated into prompts used by local influencers (paid individuals with more than 1,000 followers) and digital volunteers (unpaid individuals with no following requirement, who joined the project independently).

Results

In the first 6 months of implementation, Appalachian Influence and Shared Influence engaged a total of 9,014 individuals, 236 of whom were paid influencers and 8,778 of whom were digital volunteers. Paid influencer posts achieved a total of 868,943 impressions, 42,432 engagements and 1,567 comments. Comments on paid influencer posts were overwhelmingly positive, with 87.4% positive and 0.8% negative. Interviews showed the importance of understanding local realities, leading with compassion and emphasising the 'human' aspects of dependency and addiction in messaging.

Conclusion

This study shows the potential to implement an influencer-led social media intervention to reach people with authentic and compassionate messaging about harm reduction and SSPs. Future research should examine intervention effectiveness and how this approach can be applied to other stigmatised topics.

Visualizing Anatomy in Dental Morphology Education

Tooth morphology is a foundation course for all dental healthcare students including dentists, dental hygiene, dental therapy, and dental nursing students. This chapter explores the conventional and innovative teaching methods to deliver tooth morphology educational modules. The teaching tools are explored with a 2D and 3D lens, with a particular focus on visualization, student understanding, and engagement. Traditional methods of teaching tooth morphology must be complemented with innovative pedagogical approaches in order to maintain student's attention and accommodate their diverse learning methods. Teaching 3D anatomy enables students to visualize and spatially comprehend the link between various anatomical components. Online tests and quizzes motivate students and are also beneficial in preparing students for exams. Online self-examinations offering visualization with 3D teeth enable students to evaluate their knowledge and offers immediate feedback, which aids in the long-term retention of information. These tools can be as efficient as other teaching methods, allowing the students to study at their own pace and with repetition. The authors conclude that blended and innovative teaching methods should supplement student learning and not replace, traditional face-to-face educational methods.

Effect of Marxist ideological and political education on students' anxiety in colleges and universities

With the rapid development of China's economy, politics and culture, the frequency of college students' anxiety has generally increased. Ideological and political educators in colleges should help college students to relieve anxiety and pressure in a timely manner, and constantly put forward effective and targeted methods. This paper analyzed the reasons for the anxiety of college students from three aspects: the way of dealing with the interpersonal relationship of college students, the degree of emphasis on college students' academic performance, and the way of college students' self-decompression. This paper proposed ways to strengthen the ability of thinking, carry out setback education, and improve the psychological quality of college students to realize the Marxist ideological and political education in colleges. This paper mainly used questionnaires and in-depth interviews to analyze the influence of mental health education courses on college students' anxiety management ability. Among them, after the end of the mental health education course, a questionnaire was distributed to the selected research subjects to understand their stress management ability status after the course. Through the analysis and comparison of the results of the two questionnaires before and after, as well as the comparison of the conventional teaching methods of college students' mental health education different from the teaching methods of group psychological counseling, it is necessary to understand the way college students' deal with anxiety. The study found that 19.23% of the students had great anxiety about interpersonal communication problems, and 9.62% of the students reported that they had no major anxiety problems. Therefore, Marxist ideological and political education in colleges has become an important means for college students to vent their emotions, relieve psychological pressure and avoid adverse consequences.

Go V.I.R.A.L.: Social Media Engagement Strategies in Infectious Diseases

Social media has emerged as a tool to facilitate communication and dissemination of information for both patients and healthcare professionals. We describe 3 social media engagement strategies used to reach a broad and diverse audience on the topics of infectious diseases and antimicrobial stewardship, including the use of memes, a clue-based knowledge assessment quiz, and a personality quiz. We describe a novel acronym "VIRAL" to guide engaging social media strategies in healthcare, including eye catching Visuals, Interactive content, showing Respect and empathy for the audience, Adapting to new technology, and making Learning fun.