Dermatopathology and Social Media: A Survey of 131 Medical Professionals From 29 Countries

Ten Years of Pathology on Twitter (X): Landscape and Evolution of Pathology on Twitter From 2012 to 2023

CONTEXT.—

Social media is a powerful tool in pathology education and professional networking that connects pathologists and pathology trainees from around the world. Twitter (X) appears to be the most popular social media platform pathologists use to share pathology-related content and connect with other pathologists. Although there has been some published research on pathology-related activity on Twitter during short time frames, to date there has not been published research examining pathology-related Twitter activity in totality from its earliest days of activity to recently.

OBJECTIVE.—

To comprehensively evaluate the use of pathology on Twitter (X) during the last 10 years.

DESIGN.—

Pathology-related tweets were systematically scraped from Twitter from January 2012 to January 2023 using pathology hashtags as a surrogate measure for all pathology content on Twitter. COVID-related tweets were approximated by tweets containing the term "COVID."

RESULTS.—

There were 591 812 unique pathology-related tweets identified during the time period, with #pathology being the most common hashtag used and #PathTwitter becoming more popular since 2020. There has been positive annual growth of pathology Twitter, with peaks in use during major pathology conferences. During the initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, a sustained increase in pathology tweets was observed.

CONCLUSIONS.—

Pathology Twitter has grown during the last 10 years and has become increasingly popular for pathology education and networking. With the changing landscape of social media platforms, this study provides an understanding of how pathology medical education and professional networking uses of social media happen and evolve over time.

Using social media for patient care, research, and professional development: A North American Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition position paper

The advent of social media has changed numerous aspects of modern life, with users developing and maintaining personal and professional relationships, following and sharing breaking news and importantly, searching for and disseminating health information and medical research. In the present paper, we reviewed available literature to outline the potential uses, pitfalls and impacts of social media for providers, scientists and institutions involved in digestive health in the domains of patient care, research and professional development. We recommend that these groups become more active participants on social media platforms to combat misinformation, advocate for patients, and curate and disseminate valuable research and educational materials. We also recommend that societies such as NASPGHAN assist its members in accessing training on effective social media use and the creation and maintenance of public-facing profiles and that academic institutions incorporate substantive social media contributions into academic promotion processes.

Use of social media for the improvement of safety knowledge and awareness among Saudi Arabian phlebotomists

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to investigate the use of social media for the improvement of safety knowledge and awareness among phlebotomists.

Methods

As this study was intended to arrive at specific conclusions using empirical evidence, a deductive quantitative cross-sectional online survey design was adopted. A total of 521 phlebotomists participated in the survey, and 86 incomplete responders were removed, resulting in a final sample of 435 considered in this study. T-tests and ANOVA were used to analyze the data.

Results

A total of 41.6% stated that social media was very effective, and 31.5% stated that it was somewhat effective in improving safety knowledge and awareness. in addition, this study revealed no major differences between male and female participants (p > 0.05) with respect to the effectiveness of social media. However, statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) among the age groups were identified in relation to the effectiveness of social media and the intention to use it in the future.

Conclusion

Social media applications are effective for knowledge dissemination among healthcare professionals.

Benefits, drawbacks, and challenges of social media use in dermatology: A systematic review

The presence of dermatological information on social media has grown exponentially over the last two decades. Consequently, the recent literature on this topic is abundant. Many authors have highlighted that social media constitutes a unique opportunity for patient education. Additionally, numerous other benefits of these platforms have been reported. However, other authors have focused on the potential risks that these networks involve. The main concerns are patient confidentiality, legal considerations and ethical issues. Therefore, we stand at a crossroads where the many advantages of social media use in dermatology seem to be underestimated due to the presence of potential drawbacks. At this point, we propose that a systematic review of the positive and negative aspects of using social media in dermatology is necessary. We carried out a comprehensive systematic review dating from inception to July 2021. Finally, 161 articles were included. Fifteen benefits, 11 drawbacks and 10 challenges of social media use in dermatology were identified and discussed. Suggested strategies to address the identified drawbacks were provided. Overall, while there are risks to using social media, they are outnumbered by their benefits. Therefore, dermatologists should embrace this opportunity to educate patients and aim to create rigorous and engaging content.

How much can our universities do in the development of cultural intelligence? A cross-sectional study among health care students

BACKGROUND

Cultural intelligence reflects the competence to adapt to new cultural settings. Universities offer students various opportunities to gain cultural learning and develop cultural intelligence. However, there has been little empirical research to compare the effects of cultural learning and other related psycho-social factors in this process.

OBJECTIVE

This study explores the importance of cultural learning and identifies the unique contribution of cultural education in universities to health care students' cultural intelligence.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional survey study.

METHODS

271 health care students completed a survey measuring social desirability, demographics, personality, prior cultural exposure, previous cultural learning and cultural intelligence.

RESULTS

Hierarchical regressions showed that cultural learning could affect cultural intelligence and its three components (i.e., metacognition, cognition, motivation, and behaviour) under the control for related psycho-social factors. However, its effect on the behavioral component was not significant. Considering the different types of cultural learning, overseas study experiences were more related to cultural intelligence, compared to in-class cultural learning.

CONCLUSION

Cultural learning, especially overseas study experiences, plays a significant role in the development of health care students' cultural intelligence.

Use of social media for the improvement of radiation safety knowledge among Saudi Arabian radiographers

BACKGROUND

Radiographers have used social media networks for education, research, professional development and other purposes. However, in Saudi Arabia, there are no studies on the use of social media by radiographers. Therefore, the objective of this research was to evaluate the use of social media for the improvement of radiation safety knowledge among Saudi Arabian radiographers.

METHODS

A questionnaire was designed to collect the data from Saudi Arabian radiographers. The questionnaire was created using Google Forms and was sent to 530 radiographers using WhatsApp. In total, 159 participants completed and returned the questionnaire through WhatsApp. The response rate was 30%. Basic descriptive statistics were employed to analyse the data.

RESULTS

Most of the participants (79.9%) thought that social media could be used as a tool for the improvement of radiation safety knowledge. Also, almost half of participants (49.7%) employed social media when they needed to obtain information about radiation protection. Similarly, a majority of respondents (69.2%) used social media when they required information related to radiation safety. In addition, 81.7% of participants observed on video the existing information on radiation safety. Also, 71.7% of them were disposed to expand the use of social media to obtain information for radiation protection in their professional activities.

CONCLUSION

The results indicate that social media can help to improve radiation safety knowledge among Saudi Arabian radiographers. Consequently, participants were willing to increase the use of these tools in their professional work.

Twitter for microblogging in oral health care, research, and academics: Road map and future directions

Current times have seen growing use of social medial tools, including microblogging sites like Twitter as an efficient method to disseminate information related to health amongst patients, students as well as health care workers. This article explores the role of this short, effective messaging platform in oral health care, teaching, research and learning. The concepts of “tweeting the meeting” and aggregation of conversations via “hashtags” is advocated for academic conferences, which will extend the conference reach to give the users better access to the instructors and enhance the related outcomes. Tweeting and retweeting the required research content may increase the academic footprint of the conducted research and researchers. In addition, it has served an immense role in the current COVID-19 pandemic by the regular circulation of information to the public and helped governments in policymaking and showcasing the areas of public concern. However, it still has a huge potential yet to be explored, with collective efforts towards strengthening the aspects of authenticity and standardization of the shared content.

Ethical Considerations for Participatory Health through Social Media: Healthcare Workforce and Policy Maker Perspectives

OBJECTIVES

To identify the different ethical issues that should be considered in participatory health through social media from different stakeholder perspectives (i.e., patients/service users, health professionals, health information technology (If) professionals, and policy makers) in any healthcare context.

METHODS

We implemented a two-round survey composed of open ended questions in the first round, aggregated into a list of ethical issues rated for importance by participants in the second round, to generate a ranked list of possible ethical issues in participatory health based on healthcare professionals' and policy makers' opinions on both their own point of view and their beliefs for other stakeholders' perspectives.

RESULTS

Twenty-six individuals responded in the first round of the survey. Multiple ethical issues were identified for each perspective. Data privacy, data security, and digital literacy were common themes in all perspectives. Thirty-three individuals completed the second round of the survey. Data privacy and data security were ranked among the three most important ethical issues in all perspectives. Quality assurance was the most important issue from the healthcare professionals' perspective and the second most important issue from the patients' perspective. Data privacy was the most important consideration for patients/service users. Digital literacy was ranked as the fourth most important issue, except for policy makers' perspective.

CONCLUSIONS

Different stakeholders' opinions fairly agreed that there are common ethical issues that should be considered across the four groups (patients, healthcare professionals, health IT professionals, policy makers) such as data privacy, security, and quality assurance.

Social media trends in dermatology, dermatopathology, and pathology publications: The social construction of medical subdisciplines

BACKGROUND

An increase in the number of publications on social media has paralleled the growth of social media use in the past decade. Our study examined the trends in these publications relating to the fields of dermatology, pathology, and dermatopathology.

METHODS

PubMed was searched for relevant literature from 2009 to present, using the following key terms: "social media", "dermatology", "dermatopathology", and "pathology." Topics of articles, years of publication, countries of origin, and contributing journals were compiled and analyzed.

RESULTS

A total of 99 publications was retrieved during the period between January 2009 and November 2019. Top publication years included 2019 (n = 21), 2018 (n = 24), 2017 (n = 20), and 2016 (n = 13). The most common topic areas noted were related to dissemination of information (n = 17; 17.2%), knowledge exchange for physicians (n = 16; 16.2%), and social networking (n = 15; 15.2%).

CONCLUSION

The number of published articles on social media in these specialties has increased since 2009, signifying the widespread use of social media for professional networking, knowledge exchange, real-time communication with patients and colleagues, and patient care. Social media in the areas of dermatology, dermatopathology, and pathology has undergone social construction during the past decade because of changes in technology and ideologies surrounding the use of social media within medicine.

Using a Facebook group to facilitate faculty-student interactions during preclinical medical education: a retrospective survey analysis

BACKGROUND

Strong learner-teacher relationships are associated with more successful learning outcomes. With shortened modular curricula and increased availability of online resources, fostering faculty interaction with preclinical medical students has become more challenging. We sought to enhance learner-teacher relationships by engaging in discussion with preclinical medical students in their own online space.

METHODS

We utilized a closed Facebook discussion group, where faculty and students voluntarily joined in informal discussions and shared announcements related to their courses. The closed discussion group allowed only participating students and faculty to see others' posts within the group. This provided a platform to freely interact within the confines of the group while maintaining privacy for the personal Facebook accounts of both faculty and students. We utilized the discussion group through three separate organ system-based modules for 14 weeks. Afterward, students were asked to complete an anonymous, voluntary online survey about their experience.

RESULTS

94.1% (160/170) of enrolled second-year medical students joined the voluntary FB discussion group. There were 214 posts, 628 comments, and 4166 reactions in this discussion group during the three modules. Of the students in the group, 74.4% (119/160) responded to the online survey. Overall, students strongly agreed that the Facebook discussion group fostered better rapport with faculty, helped content learning, and improved emotional well-being. Also, they felt more comfortable seeking academic help after using the discussion group. They reported a slight preference for Facebook over email as a medium for asking questions, but no preference for either as a medium for distributing announcements. Students overwhelmingly recommended that the discussion group should be continued in future years.

CONCLUSION

The Facebook discussion group was a free, efficient, and effective method of cultivating the learner-teacher relationship with the preclinical medical students, resulting in reported enhancement of learning and morale.

Physicians' Attitude towards The Use of Social Media for Professional Purposes in Saudi Arabia

Purpose

In relation to this research, only a few studies have been carried out around the world. However, in Saudi Arabia, there have been no investigations into this subject. In this sense, the objective of this study was to investigate the physicians' attitudes towards the use of social media for professional purposes in Saudi Arabia.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted among 235 physicians from different regions of Saudi Arabia. The data were collected by means of a survey. The survey questionnaire was distributed using the WhatsApp application. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the results.

Results

The most common social media used by the respondents was Facebook, and the majority of the participants agreed that social media improved their knowledge and skills. However, most of the participants did not interact with patients using these tools, did not feel comfortable conducting an online consultation, and believed that social media affected the choice of the healthcare provider. Similarly, 30.6% of the respondents opined that it is not appropriate to search online information about patients, and 44.3% of them considered that patients would not trust the medical advice if a physician obtained the information from a website.

Conclusion

The results showed that the majority of the respondents considered that social media improved the knowledge and abilities of physicians. In addition, the respondents reflected that there were ethical issues that must be taken into account when using social media and more than half of them did not interact with their patients employing these tools. The outcomes of this research will help to develop programs directed at the physicians in Saudi Arabia to enhance their knowledge, professional skills, medicine practice, patient-doctor interaction, and handle the risks involved in the use of social media.

Social media usage and online professionalism among registered nurses: A cross-sectional survey

BACKGROUND

Owing to its convenience and easy accessibility, social media is increasingly popular among healthcare professionals and has become a useful tool in the healthcare industry. Doctors' social media use patterns and online professionalism have been thoroughly studied. Various unprofessional behaviors such as excessive self-disclosure, violations of patient privacy and improper social media posts, were observed. However, studies exploring nurses' social media use and online professionalism are lacking.

OBJECTIVES

The objective of this study was to understand the social media use and online professionalism of Chinese registered nurses.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional survey was adopted.

SETTINGS

Eight nursing conferences and one continuing-education program that took place in Sichuan, China.

PARTICIPANTS

Convenience sampling was applied to select nurses who had obtained their Chinese nursing certificates, who were aged 18 years and above, and who worked in clinical settings. The final sample consisted of 658 registered nurses.

METHODS

Data were collected through the on-site distribution of an anonymous researcher-designed questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of 41 items that focused on demographic and professional information, social media use and online professionalism. Medians, averages and percentages were used to describe the social media use patterns and online professionalism of Chinese registered nurses.

RESULTS

All participants in this study were social media users and 84.5% of them believed that social media had positively influenced their clinical practice. WeChat was the most frequently used form of social media, which was used among 93.5% of the subjects. Common reasons for social media use included receiving messages from work, networking, receiving news and relaxing. Approximately 56% of the participants spent one to three hours on social media daily. Most of the participants had reposted medical knowledge on social media and had subscribed to at least one medical social media account. Additionally, 67.2% of the sample disclosed that they "often" communicate work-related information with colleagues via social media. Roughly 50% of the sample insisted that their facilities had social media guidelines. Registered nurses' professionalism was also assessed. Around half of the participants had received "friend request" from patients, while 63.5% of the sample acknowledged that there were no patients on their most frequently used social media platforms. About 7.6% of the respondents had "sometimes" posted identifiable patient information, which was much lower than the reported 32.5% rate of witnessing colleagues' disclosure of identifiable patient information. Fully 50.3% of the participants indicated that they had witnessed improper posts by colleagues.

[Pathologist versus social media: A survival guide]

Social networks have changed the communication tools among healthcare professionals, enabling instantaneous and globalized sharing and monitoring of information. While more and more pathologists are taking advantage of these tools, some do not yet know them well, or have concerns about their use. These platforms have many advantages and the potential risks can be minimized by appropriate use. A pathologist community is very active, especially on Twitter and Facebook. They share and discuss interesting cases, communicate around our specialty or simply strengthen links between pathologists around the world. Professional organizations and pathology journals are also present. This article aims to present social networks, their pros and cons and to give some good practice tips and examples of uses of the 2 main social networks used in pathology: Facebook and Twitter.

Use of social media in the Department of Radiology at Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare in Saudi Arabia

PURPOSE

The objective of this study was to evaluate the use of social media in the Radiology Department at Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare in Saudi Arabia.

METHODS

The research was a cross-sectional study in which 90 workers from the staff personnel of the Radiology Department at Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare were invited to a web-based survey using Google Forms. Fifty-seven participants responded to the survey (63%). Basic descriptive statistics were used to analyze the responses.

RESULTS

More than half of the participants (54.8%) were technologists. The majority of the respondents (61.4%) had a Bachelor's degree, and 50.8% of them had more than 10 years of experience. Also, 36.8% of the participants were between 30 and 40 years old, and 57.9 of them were males. Similarly, most of the participants (61.4%) were from Saudi Arabia. Additionally, the most frequently used application was WhatsApp (59.6%). Likewise, almost half of the participants (47.4%) managed social media multiple times a day and more than half of them used these tools to communicate with friends (68.4%) and family members (61.4%). As well, 12% of the respondents employed these media to study and 20% used them for professional reasons. Also, 38.6% of respondents had no barriers to use social media. However, the rest considered that time, private matters, negative replies, lack of information and experience, and uncertainty about the usefulness of social media were barriers.

CONCLUSION

According to the survey, most of the personnel of the Radiology Department at Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare often used WhatsApp to communicate with family (61.4%) and friends (68.4%), and less than half of them employed these tools for educational purposes (21.1%) and professional issues (35.1%). Additionally, participants considered that there were some barriers related to the use of these tools.

Keep Calm and Tweet On: Legal and Ethical Considerations for Pathologists Using Social Media

Recent privacy breaches by a major social media company have again raised questions from some pathologists regarding the legality and ethics of sharing pathology images on social media. The authors examined ethical principles as well as historic and legal precedents relevant to pathology medical photography. Taking and sharing photographs of pathology specimens is embedded into the culture of the specialty of pathology and has been for more than a century. In general, the pathologist who takes the photograph of a gross or microscopic specimen owns the copyright to that photograph. Patient consent is not legally or ethically required to take or use deidentified photographs of pathology specimens. Current US privacy laws (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act [HIPAA] of 1996) permit public sharing of deidentified pathology photographs without specific patient consent, even on social media. There is no case law of action taken against pathologists for sharing deidentified pathology images on social media or elsewhere. If there is any legal risk for pathologists or risk of patient harm in sharing pathology photographs, it is very small. The benefits of professional social media use for pathologists, patients, and society are numerous and well documented in the literature.

Utility of social networks and online data collection in nursing research: Analysis of Spanish nurses' level of knowledge about palliative care

INTRODUCTION

Internet-based social networks are used by nurses with different purposes, including the creation of working groups and to share and create knowledge.

PURPOSE

To evaluate the utility of social networks in the dissemination of an online questionnaire and to measure Spanish RNs' knowledge about palliative care.

METHODS

A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out. Using social networks we distributed an online questionnaire with the Spanish version of Palliative Care Quiz for Nurses (PCQN-SV) throughout August 2015.

RESULTS

A direct relationship between the number of responses and the questionnaire's apparitions in each social network was found. Comparing the results obtained by the 446 RNs participating in this study with those obtained in the study to pilot the PCQN-SV we identify that differences found are related to the participants' features (years of experience and hours of training in palliative care) and not to the type of questionnaire they answered.

CONCLUSIONS

Social networks have shown to be a useful tool for nursing research by its ability, to recruit participants as well as to collect data, so their role as an instrument of research should be considered.