Professional Social Networking in Radiology: Who Is There and What Are They Doing?
Abstract
Rationale and objectives Although it is perceived that the use of social media professionally is increasing among radiologists, little is known about the habits and demographics of this subspecialty. This study aims to compare radiologists who use social networking for professional purposes to those who do not with regard to their characteristics, habits, and attitudes.Materials and methods Radiologists were invited by e-mail and through posts on social networks to participate in a survey on the use of social media platforms. Questions included type of user, pattern of use, and benefits and barriers. Professional users and professional nonusers were compared.Results One hundred eighty-six radiologists responded. One hundred ten (59.1%) used social networking for professional purposes, 34 (18.2%) for personal-use only, and 42 (22.6%) denied using social media. LinkedIn was the most common platform among all professional users, and Twitter was the most commonly used platform among highly active professional users. Trainees comprised 52 out of 110 (47.3%) professional social networking users compared to 18 out of 76 (23.7%) nonusers (P < 0.01). A subgroup analysis on Twitter use for professional purposes revealed a significant gender difference: 15 out of 66 (22.7%) professional Twitter users were female compared to 48 out of 120 (40.0%) non-Twitter users (P < 0.05). The greatest barrier to professional social media use for nonusers was confidentiality.Conclusion Nearly 60% of radiologist respondents use social networking for professional purposes. Radiology is likely to see growth in the role of social networking in the coming years as nearly half of professional users are radiology trainees. Twitter use for professional purposes among radiologists was disproportionately male. It is important to be cognizant of gender imbalance and to improve visibility of female leaders on social networking.
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Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube were specifically targeted social media/social networking sites in 7 studies.
“Twitter [38,44,80,91,110], Instagram [101], and YouTube [37] were specifically targeted SM/SNSs in 7 studies.”
From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [91]
In Patel et al's study, a subgroup analysis on Twitter use for professional purposes revealed a significant gender difference: only one in four users was a female radiologist and only 14% of highly active users were female.
“In Patel et al’s [91] study where a subgroup analysis on Twitter use for professional purposes revealed a significant gender difference: only one in four users was a female radiologist and only 14% of highly active users were female.”
From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [91]
Lower rates of social media use were seen in practicing health care professionals, physicians of different specialties, and program directors or faculty, mostly ranging from 50% to 80%.
“Lower rates of use were seen in practicing HCPs, physicians of different specialties, and program directors (PDs) or faculty, mostly ranging from 50% to 80% [35,39,74,80,83,85,86,88,89,91,96,105,106,108,110,113,114].”
From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [91]
Significant gender differences in social media use were established in several studies.
“Significant gender differences were established in several studies [71,79,91,95,105,107].”
From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [91]
A linear relationship between increasing age and decreasing social media use was found among physicians of the same specialty or other health care professionals.
“A linear relationship between increasing age and decreasing SM use was also found among physicians of the same specialty or other HCPs [85,91,94,95,100,106].”
From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [91]
Studies investigated whether participants mixed professional and personal information and activities on social media sites (blended profiles) or adopted a separation strategy (dual citizenship).
“Studies also investigated the purpose of SM use, whether participants mixed professional and personal information and activities on SM sites (blended profiles) or adopted a separation strategy where professional information and activities were clearly separated from personal ones (dual citizenship) [34,39,69,78,79,91,96,97,106].”
From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [91]
Breaches of patient privacy were a concern for many different types of health care professionals.
“Breaches of patient privacy was a concern for many different types of HCPs [34,43,47,57,91,94,97,107,111,119].”
From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [91]
Blurred boundaries between professional and personal spheres of social media use, with concerns about exposure of private life or separating private and professional profiles, have been presented in numerous studies in this review.
“Blurred boundaries between professional and personal spheres of SM use [34, 39, 47, 51, 69, 78, 79, 91, 96, 97, 106], with concerns about exposure of one’s private life or separating private and professional profiles have been presented in numerous studies of this review.”
From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [91]
Lack of free time or time constraint was often recognized as a barrier.
“Lack of free time or time constraint was often recognized as a barrier [39,69,74,79,91,93,96], as well as lack of knowledge or technical skills for use of SM [33,39,76,79,93,118].”
From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [91]
Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube were specifically targeted social media or social networking sites in 7 studies.
“Twitter [38,44,80,91,110], Instagram [101], and YouTube [37] were specifically targeted SM/SNSs in 7 studies.”
From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [91]
Compromising confidentiality concerns were described in numerous studies in this review, especially about breaches of patient privacy or possible risks of violating HIPAA online.
“Compromising confidentiality concerns were described in numerous studies in this review [34, 43, 47, 57, 91, 94, 97, 107, 111, 119], especially about breaches of patient privacy or possible risks of violating HIPAA online.”
From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [91]
Blurred boundaries between professional and personal spheres of social media use, with concerns about exposure of one's private life, presenting details of personal life, or separating private and professional profiles, have been presented in numerous studies in this review.
“Blurred boundaries between professional and personal spheres of SM use [34, 39, 47, 51, 69, 78, 79, 91, 96, 97, 106], with concerns about exposure of one’s private life, presenting details of personal life, or separating private and professional profiles, have been presented in numerous studies in this review.”
From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [91]
A lack of free time or time constraint was often recognized as a barrier to health care professionals' use of social media in the context of e-professionalism, as well as a lack of knowledge or technical skills for use of social media.
“A lack of free time or time constraint was often recognized as a barrier [39,69,74,79,91,93,96], as well as a lack of knowledge or technical skills for use of SM [33,39,76,79,93,118].”
From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [91]
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References 15 · Cited by 61
- Authors
- Patel, S. S., Hawkins, C. M., Rawson, J. V., & Hoang, J. K.
- Affiliations
- Duke Medical Center (US)
- Emory University (US)
- Augusta University (US)
- Duke University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Hoang, Jenny K.
- Venue
- Academic Radiology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2017-05
- Volume
- 24
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 574-579
- ISSN
- 1076-6332 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2579984158
- Cited by
- 61
- References
- 15
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 7
- FWCI
- 9.71
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Academic Radiology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Health › Social Media in Health Education
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Radiology practices and education
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Networks and Communications › Media and Digital Communication
- Keywords
- social media use, professional social networking, radiologists, LinkedIn, Twitter, radiology residents, gender differences, confidentiality concerns, barriers to social media use, professional networking
- MeSH terms
- Professionalism, Radiologists, Education, Medical, Continuing, Female, Humans, Male, Surveys and Questionnaires, Radiology, United States, Social Networking
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