#CGS2015: An Evaluation of Twitter Use at the Canadian Geriatrics Society Annual Scientific Meeting

The Role of Twitter in Radiology Medical Education and Research: A Review of Current Practices and Drawbacks

The trends in society have provided favourable conditions for the rapid growth of radiology on social media, specifically there has been an expanding presence on Twitter. Currently, simple searches on Twitter yield a plethora of radiology education resources, that may be suited for medical students, residents or practicing radiologists. Educators have many tools at their disposal to deliver effective teaching. Over time, strategies such as including images and scrollable stacks often are more successful at gaining popularity or clicks online. Journals and authors can use Twitter to promote their new scientific work and potentially reach audiences they couldn't have prior. Attendees at conferences can get involved in the conversation by tweeting about the meeting and engaging with other attendees with mutual interests. Interested medical students, residents and even practicing radiologists can use Twitter as a means of networking and connecting with other scholars all around the globe. Within its glory, Twitter does carry some drawbacks including privacy concerns, equality, and risk of misinformation. Above all, the future of Twitter is bright and promising for all who are currently on it and plan to use it for their education, research, or professional advancement.

The International Natural Product Sciences Taskforce (INPST) and the power of Twitter networking exemplified through #INPST hashtag analysis

BACKGROUND

The development of digital technologies and the evolution of open innovation approaches have enabled the creation of diverse virtual organizations and enterprises coordinating their activities primarily online. The open innovation platform titled "International Natural Product Sciences Taskforce" (INPST) was established in 2018, to bring together in collaborative environment individuals and organizations interested in natural product scientific research, and to empower their interactions by using digital communication tools.

METHODS

In this work, we present a general overview of INPST activities and showcase the specific use of Twitter as a powerful networking tool that was used to host a one-week "2021 INPST Twitter Networking Event" (spanning from 31st May 2021 to 6th June 2021) based on the application of the Twitter hashtag #INPST.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION

The use of this hashtag during the networking event period was analyzed with Symplur Signals (https://www.symplur.com/), revealing a total of 6,036 tweets, shared by 686 users, which generated a total of 65,004,773 impressions (views of the respective tweets). This networking event's achieved high visibility and participation rate showcases a convincing example of how this social media platform can be used as a highly effective tool to host virtual Twitter-based international biomedical research events.

An Innovative Use of Twitter to Disseminate and Promote Medical Student Scholarship During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Usability Study

BACKGROUND

Due to the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, the cancellation of in-person learning activities forced every aspect of medical education and student engagement to pivot to a web-based format, including activities supporting the performance and dissemination of scholarly work. At that time, social media had been used to augment in-person conference learning, but it had not been used as the sole platform for scholarly abstract presentations.

OBJECTIVE

Our aim was to assess the feasibility of using Twitter to provide a completely web-based forum for real-time dissemination of and engagement with student scholarly work as an alternative to a traditional in-person poster presentation session.

METHODS

The Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University launched an online Medical Student Scholarship Forum, using Twitter as a platform for students to present scholarly work and prepare for future web-based presentations. A single student forum participant created posts using a standardized template that incorporated student research descriptions, uniform promotional hashtags, and individual poster presentations. Tweets were released over 5 days and analytic data were collected from the Twitter platform. Outcome measures included impressions, engagements, retweets, likes, media engagements, and average daily engagement rate.

RESULTS

During the conference, the student leader published 63 tweets promoting the work of 58 students (55 medical and 3 dental students) over 5 days. During the forum and the following week, tweets from the @BrodyDistinctly Twitter account received 63,142 impressions and 7487 engagements, including 187 retweets, 1427 likes, and 2082 media engagements. During the 5 days of the forum, the average daily engagement rate was 12.72%.

CONCLUSIONS

Using Twitter as a means of scholarly dissemination resulted in a larger viewing community compared to a traditional in-person event. Early evidence suggests that social media platforms may be an alternative to traditional scholarly presentations. Presenting via Twitter allowed students to receive instantaneous feedback and effectively network with wider academic communities. Additional research is needed to evaluate the effectiveness of knowledge uptake, feedback, and networking.

Promoting Research, Awareness, and Discussion on AI in Medicine Using #MedTwitterAI: A Longitudinal Twitter Hashtag Analysis

Background

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to reshape medical practice and the delivery of healthcare. Online discussions surrounding AI's utility in these domains are increasingly emerging, likely due to considerable interest from healthcare practitioners, medical technology developers, and other relevant stakeholders. However, many practitioners and medical students report limited understanding and familiarity with AI.

Objective

To promote research, events, and resources at the intersection of AI and medicine for the online medical community, we created a Twitter-based campaign using the hashtag #MedTwitterAI.

Methods

In the present study, we analyze the use of #MedTwitterAI by tracking tweets containing this hashtag posted from 26th March, 2019 to 26th March, 2021, using the Symplur Signals hashtag analytics tool. The full text of all #MedTwitterAI tweets was also extracted and subjected to a natural language processing analysis.

Results

Over this time period, we identified 7,441 tweets containing #MedTwitterAI, posted by 1,519 unique Twitter users which generated 59,455,569 impressions. The most common identifiable locations for users including this hashtag in tweets were the United States (378/1,519), the United Kingdom (80/1,519), Canada (65/1,519), India (46/1,519), Spain (29/1,519), France (24/1,519), Italy (16/1,519), Australia (16/1,519), Germany (16/1,519), and Brazil (15/1,519). Tweets were frequently enhanced with links (80.2%), mentions of other accounts (93.9%), and photos (56.6%). The five most abundant single words were AI (artificial intelligence), patients, medicine, data, and learning. Sentiment analysis revealed an overall majority of positive single word sentiments (e.g., intelligence, improve) with 230 positive and 172 negative sentiments with a total of 658 and 342 mentions of all positive and negative sentiments, respectively. Most frequently mentioned negative sentiments were cancer, risk, and bias. Most common bigrams identified by Markov chain depiction were related to analytical methods (e.g., label-free detection) and medical conditions/biological processes (e.g., rare circulating tumor cells).

Conclusion

These results demonstrate the generated considerable interest of using #MedTwitterAI for promoting relevant content and engaging a broad and geographically diverse audience. The use of hashtags in Twitter-based campaigns can be an effective tool to raise awareness of interdisciplinary fields and enable knowledge-sharing on a global scale.

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

Although growing evidence supports the inclusion of social media in education, no studies to date have investigated the potential role of Instagram in anatomy education for dental students. Anatomists at University of Texas School of Dentistry (UTSD) and University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) College of Dentistry created unique Instagram pages supplemental to traditional pedagogy, aiming to provide easily-accessible, interactive content for our tech-savvy students. The aim of this study was to evaluate students' perspectives of the use of social media in education and their respective professor's Instagram page. In the fall of 2020, 170 students (86 from UTSD and 84 from UNMC) voluntarily participated in a survey via Qualtrics. The majority of respondents (85.1%) had seven or more years of experience with social media, and 96.9% of students reported using social media as a source of information with 92.5% using for educational purposes. All students agreed that their respective professor's page has been helpful for anatomy study and review, added to their understanding of anatomy, is convenient, engaging, and professional. While consistent themes emerged between cohorts, UNMC students had a higher level of agreement regarding their page's added relevance to learning in the class/clinic (p = 0.0016), while UTSD students reported feeling more comfortable asking their professor questions through Instagram (p = 0.015). Among all variables, female students and Generation Z students responded more favorably than male or Generation Y counterparts. Here, the authors describe benefits and considerations for others interested in using Instagram as an educational tool.

Twitter Hashtag and Online Engagement During Surgical Society Meetings Over a 5-Year Period

BACKGROUND

Utilizing social media platforms can augment medical conferences by sharing new knowledge and information through hashtags. We aim to investigate the use of Twitter, enhanced conference experience, and education at the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma (EAST) Annual Scientific Assembly 2016-2020.

METHODS

EAST hashtags were analyzed for the Annual Scientific Assembly 2016-2020: #EAST2016, #EAST2017, #EAST2018, #EAST2019, and #EAST2020. Using #EAST2016 as a baseline, active interaction through engagement, measured by tweets and retweets, passive interaction through impressions, measured by views, as well as users, and influencers were analyzed.

RESULTS

2016-2018 saw a significant increase in engagement (7400 to 9200 to 11 000, respectively, P < .05). 2018-2020 then showed a significant decrease in engagement (11 000 to 9000 to 6700, respectively, P < .05). Impressions, increased significantly from 2016 to 2020 (6.6 million to 13.3 million to 12.6 million to 19.9 million to 20.3 million, respectively, P < .05). Users significantly increased to 2700 in 2018 compared with 1000 in 2016 (P < .05), and significantly decreased to 814 in 2020 compared with 2700 in 2018 (P < .05). The top online influencer was the EAST organization Twitter account.

CONCLUSION

#EAST2016-2018 showed a significant increase in engagement between users, measured by tweets/retweets. However, #EAST2019-2020 suffered declines in users' engagement, maybe a result of social media fatigue. Although, #EAST2016-2020 showed a significant increase in impressions. Both passive and to a more extent active forms of online social media engagement can potentially disseminate new knowledge and medical information. Scientific societies should focus on more effective ways to maintain and enhance users' online experience and engagement toward better utilization of social media platforms.

Brain Tumor Discussions on Twitter (#BTSM): Social Network Analysis

BACKGROUND

The Brain Tumor Social Media (#BTSM) Twitter hashtag was founded in February 2012 as a disease-specific hashtag for patients with brain tumor.

OBJECTIVE

To understand #BTSM's role as a patient support system, we describe user descriptors, growth, interaction, and content sharing.

METHODS

We analyzed all tweets containing #BTSM from 2012 to 2018 using the Symplur Signals platform to obtain data and to describe Symplur-defined user categories, tweet content, and trends in use over time. We created a network plot with all publicly available retweets involving #BTSM in 2018 to visualize key stakeholders and their connections to other users.

RESULTS

From 2012 to 2018, 59,764 unique users participated in #BTSM, amassing 298,904 tweets. The yearly volume of #BTSM tweets increased by 264.57% from 16,394 in 2012 to 43,373 in 2018 with #BTSM constantly trending in the top 15 list of disease hashtags, as well the top 15 list of tweet chats. Patient advocates generated the most #BTSM tweets (33.13%), while advocacy groups, caregivers, doctors, and researchers generated 7.01%, 4.63%, 3.86%, and 3.37%, respectively. Physician use, although still low, has increased over time. The 2018 network plot of retweets including #BTSM identifies a number of key stakeholders from the patient advocate, patient organization, and medical researcher domains and reveals the extent of their reach to other users.

CONCLUSIONS

From its start in 2012, #BTSM has grown exponentially over time. We believe its growth suggests its potential as a global source of brain tumor information on Twitter for patients, advocates, patient organizations as well as health care professionals and researchers.

Analysis of the American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress Twitter Hashtags and Its Impact on Online Engagement and Attendance Rates : The Era of Health Care Social Media

BACKGROUND

Twitter at conferences facilitates remote interaction and spread of ideas. Through the use of hashtags, conference information can be gathered, referenced, disseminated, and discussed in 1 electronic location by attendees and nonattendees from remote locations. The aim of this study is to analyze the American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress (ACSCC) Twitter hashtag activities and evaluate its impact on meeting participation and engagement for the last 5 annual meetings.

METHODS

Twitter hashtags #ACSCC15, #ACSCC16, #ACSCC17, #ACSCC18, and #ACSCC19 were studied to determine tweets, retweets, users, and impressions. Data regarding top influencers and the most tweeted links were analyzed. Symplur Signals, a software that specializes in hashtags, was utilized for the analyses.

RESULTS

Between 2015 and 2017, there was a consistent increase in tweets from 12 800 to 18 300 to 24 700, respectively. However, in 2018 and 2019, tweets dropped significantly to 19 700 and 19 300, respectively (P < .05). Additionally, impressions dropped significantly by 24 million impressions from 2017 to 2019 (115.1M to 91.1M, P < .05) despite the growth of users from 2700 in 2015 to 4100 in 2016 and ~6500 in 2017-2019. This change occurred despite no change in meeting attendance rates, regardless of specialty (P > .05). The most influential organizations in hashtag use were the American College of Surgeons (ACS) and Association of Women Surgeons (AWS).

CONCLUSION

Despite the significant reduction in views and online engagement activities in the past 2 years, the use of Twitter at the ACS CC has greatly increased the potential dissemination of information but not meeting attendance rates.

Surgeons and social media: The use of twitter hashtags at the Academic Surgical Congress 2015-2019: A cross sectional study

Background

The use of Twitter hashtags at medical conferences has revolutionized the way healthcare professionals interact and advance their education. We aim to investigate the scope of the Academic Surgical Congress's online reach and engagement through the use of Twitter hashtags #ASC from 2015 to 2019, by analyzing the number of impressions and tweets and retweets.

Methods

A cross sectional study of Twitter data through Symplur with the following conference hashtags for the Academic Surgical Congress annual meetings for years 2015–2019: #ASC2015, #ASC2016, #ASC2017, #ASC2018, and #ASC2019. Data on tweets, retweets, users, and impressions was reviewed along with information on the top 10 influencers and the most frequently tweeted links. Symplur Signals software was utilized to extract and assimilate data. Statistical Significance was defined as p < 0.05.

Results

Twitter engagement metrics significantly increased from 11,400 to 32,100 from 2015 to 2017 (p < 0.05). However, from 2017 to 2019, there was a significant decline in engagement metrics from 32,100 to 26,100 (p < 0.05). Impressions increased significantly from 13,100 in 2015 to 71,800 impressions in 2019 (p < 0.05). Users grew significantly from 1500 in 2015 to peak at 4600 in 2017 before dropping back to 3300 in 2019 (p < 0.05). The most influential organizations during these years were the organizers of the conference: Association for Academic Surgery and the Society of University Surgeons. Conference attendance progressively increased from approximately 1700 in 2016 to about 2100 in 2019 (p < 0.05).

Conclusions

Twitter engagement metrics at the Academic Surgical Congress 2015–2019 has fluctuated, while impressions significantly increased through the years indicating the consistent dissemination of conference content.

•

Cross sectional review of the Academic Surgical Congress's online reach and engagement through the use of Twitter hashtags #ASC 2015–2019.

•

Twitter engagement metrics at the Academic Surgical Congress 2015–2019 has fluctuated, while impressions significantly increased through the years.

•

Using Twitter to maximize the dissemination of scientific surgical research and evidence-based practices is highly beneficial to medical professionals.

Hashtags in healthcare: understanding Twitter hashtags and online engagement at the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma 2016-2019 meetings

BACKGROUND

Social media amplifies the accessibility, reach and impact of medical education and conferences alike. The use of hashtags at medical conferences allows material to be discussed and improved on by the experts via online conversation on Twitter. We aim to investigate the utilization of hashtags at the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma (AAST) meetings from 2016 to 2019 and its potential role in knowledge dissemination and meeting participations.

METHODS

Symplur Signals software was used to analyze hashtags for the AAST meetings by year: #AAST2016, #AAST2017, #AAST2018, #AAST2019.

RESULTS

Number of tweets decreased significantly from 2016 to 2019 (4500 to 4400 to 3600 to 2600, respectively, p<0.05). Retweets also decreased significantly from 2016 to 2019 (3600 to 3300 to 2600 to 1900, respectively, p<0.05). Users decreased from 2016 to 2019 (1600 to 1400 to 937 to 743, respectively, p<0.05). Despite this decrease, impressions were 5.8 million in 2016, increasing to 8.6 million in 2017, then 9.6 million in 2018 and finally peaking in 2019 where impressions reached 10 million (p<0.05). The top influencer for 2016-2019 was the AAST Twitter account.

CONCLUSION

Twitter #AAST 2016-2019 online engagement and interactions have declined during the last 4 years while impressions have grown steadily indicating potential widespread dissemination of trauma-related knowledge and evidence-based practices, and increased online utilization of conference material to trauma surgeons, residents and fellows, trauma scientists, other physicians and the lay public. #AAST online engagement and impressions did not have influence on meeting attendance rates.

Social Media Engagement at Academic Conferences: Report of the Association of Pathology Chairs 2018 and 2019 Annual Meeting Social Media Committee

The use of social media at academic conferences is expanding, and platforms such as Twitter are used to share meeting content with the world. Pathology conferences are no exception, and recently, pathology organizations have promoted social media as a way to enhance meeting exposure. A social media committee was formed ad hoc to implement strategies to enhance social media involvement and coverage at the 2018 and 2019 annual meetings of the Association of Pathology Chairs. This organized approach resulted in an 11-fold increase in social media engagement compared to the year prior to committee formation (2017). In this article, the social media committee reviews the strategies that were employed and the resultant outcome data. In addition, we categorize tweets by topic to identify the topics of greatest interest to meeting participants, and we discuss the differences between Twitter and other social media platforms. Lastly, we review the existing literature on this topic from 23 medical specialties and health care fields.

Potential Role of Twitter at an Annual Congress in Japan - Narrative Literature Review of "Tweet the Meeting"

Background: Twitter has become increasingly popular at annual medical congresses as a platform to communicate to attendees. In contrast, Twitter is not as frequently used in Japan as compared with other countries. Herein, we reviewed the literature and discuss the potential role and risks of “tweet the meeting” in Japan.

Methods and Results: We performed a literature review to consider the recent trend of tweeting the meeting, including benefits and how to tweet, as well as potential risks. Upon officially deciding to tweet the meeting, a number of societies and professional organizations developed strategies to enhance the attendees’ experience using multiple modalities and guides. Although there are several risks, we provide a concise guide to tweeting the meeting for the Japanese audience, which could be useful for understanding what should be done before and during a conference.

Conclusions: The use of Twitter at medical congresses has many possibilities, and there are numerous potentials in many areas. We should discuss this in the light of the benefits for congress attendees in Japan.

Tweeting the Headache Meetings: Cross-Sectional Analysis of Twitter Activity Surrounding American Headache Society Conferences

OBJECTIVES

To describe and analyze Twitter activity associated with American Headache Society (AHS) conferences and evaluate the potential for Twitter to promote education and public outreach.

BACKGROUND

Many medical and scientific conferences have adopted Twitter as a method of promoting discussion among attendees as well as increasing visibility. Relatively little is known, however, about the composition of conference Twitter activity, the participants, and the impact on broader Twitter discussions.

METHODS

We analyzed Twitter data from 5 AHS conferences held from 2014 to 2016 using their respective hashtags. Using the Symplur Healthcare Hashtags open social media search platform, we gathered data on numbers of tweets, impressions, participants, and mentions during a 10-day period surrounding each conference, as well as samples of Twitter accounts participating. Prominent accounts were categorized as individual medical professionals, other individuals, host organizations, health-related organizations, medical centers, and industry by cross-checking their Twitter profiles and conference registration lists. Larger samples of accounts participating in the 2016 conferences were also obtained and categorized similarly, with individual person accounts classified by conference registration status. A related prominent hashtag (#migraine) was also identified and Twitter usage before, during, and after each conference was analyzed to evaluate the impact of conference activity on broader Twitter conversations.

RESULTS

Nineteen thousand nine hundred thirty-six tweets were generated across the 5 conferences, with 11,531 (58%) created by the Top 10 participating accounts in each conference, which were primarily individual medical professionals and host organizations. Thirty-two million six hundred eighty-three thousand impressions were generated across the 5 conferences, with 24,656,000 (75%) coming from the Top 10 participants in each, particularly host organizations and other individuals. An average of 331 accounts participated in each conference. The Top 10 mentioned accounts in each conference (consisting of 21 unique accounts with 14 accounts in the Top 10 across multiple conferences, primarily individual medical professionals) received a total of 15,093 mentions. Among 135 unique accounts participating actively in the two 2016 conferences, 39% were individual medical professionals, 38% other individuals, 16% health-related organizations (including the 2 host organizations), 4% medical centers, and 2% industry. From these samples, 34 of 70 (49%) and 43 of 66 (65%) individual person accounts participating in the Twitter discussion at each conference were not registered conference attendees, indicating substantial outside participation via Twitter. #migraine usage during conferences showed a significant increase from baseline in number of tweets (6080 in a 10-day period vs 3721, P < .0001) and participants (2332 vs 1830, P < .0001) but the increase was not significant for impressions (30,155 vs 25,361, P = .240).

CONCLUSIONS

Consistent with the dynamics of Twitter conversations on other topics, AHS conference discussions featured a small group of accounts creating the bulk of content, with individual medical professionals and host organizations generating the largest shares of tweets and mentions while host organizations and other individuals produced the most impressions. Participating accounts were mainly individuals and health-related organizations, with more non-attendee participants than expected. Conference Twitter activity correlated with a significant increase in #migraine usage, suggesting a perceptible influence on the discussion of health-related topics beyond the conference itself.

Summer Issue, 2018

-