Professional Use of Social Media Among Surgeons: Results of a Multi-Institutional Study
Abstract
Objective Among surgeons, professional use of social media (SM) is varied, and attitudes are ambiguous. We sought to characterize surgeons' professional use and perceptions of SM.Design Surgical faculty and trainees received institutional review board-approved e-mail surveys assessing SM usage and attitudes. Regression analyses identified predictors of SM attitudes and preference for professional contact.Setting Surveys were administered to surgical faculty, fellows, and residents at 4 academic medical centers between January and April 2016.Participants Of 1037 surgeons, clinical fellows, and residents e-mailed, 208 (20%) responded, including 132 faculty and 76 trainees.Results Among 208 respondents, 46 (22%) indicated they preferred some form of SM as their preferred networking and communication modality. A total of 145 (70%) indicated they believe SM benefits professional development. The position of clinical resident predicted preference to maintain professional contact via SM (p = 0.03). Age <55 predicted positive attitude (p = 0.02) and rank of associate professor predicted negative attitude toward SM (p = 0.03). Lack of time as well as personal and patient privacy concerns were cited most commonly as reasons for not using SM.Conclusions Most of surgeons responding to our survey used some form of SM for professional purposes. Perceived barriers include lack of value, time constraints, and personal and patient privacy concerns. Generational differences in surgeon attitudes suggest usage of SM among surgeons will expand over time.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
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 [95]
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 [95]
A survey among US surgeons indicated 70% of respondents believe social media benefits professional development.
“A survey among US surgeons indicated that 70% of respondents believe SM benefits professional development”
From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [95]
Among Chinese urologists, 52.7% believe social media provides a platform for surgical or medical education.
“similar to findings among Chinese urologist where 52.7% believe that SM provides a platform for surgical or medical education [95,106].”
From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [95]
Canadian urologists (59%) consider social media as a simple information repository that is likely to increase in the continuing professional development space.
“Canadian urologists (59%) consider SM as a simple information repository that is likely to increase in the continuing professional development space [95].”
From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [95]
Cites
Social Media Use in Medical Education: A Systematic Review
Cheston, C. C., Flickinger, T. E., & Chisolm, M. S. (2013) · Academic Medicine · doi:10.1097/acm.0b013e31828ffc23 · Cited by 638 · see citing works
Attai, D. J., Cowher, M. S., Al-Hamadani, M., Schoger, J. M., Staley, A. C., & Landercasper, J. (2015) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/jmir.4721 · Cited by 357 · see citing works
Self-citationOnline professionalism and the mirror of social media.
Greysen, S. R., Kind, T., & Chretien, K. C. (2010) · Journal of General Internal Medicine · doi:10.1007/s11606-010-1447-1 · Cited by 323 · see citing works
The Patient–Doctor Relationship and Online Social Networks: Results of a National Survey
Bosslet, G. T., Torke, A. M., Hickman, S. E., Terry, C. L., & Helft, P. R. (2011) · Journal of General Internal Medicine · doi:10.1007/s11606-011-1761-2 · Cited by 306 · see citing works
Ibrahim, A. M., Lillemoe, K. D., Klingensmith, M. E., & Dimick, J. B. (2017) · Annals of Surgery · doi:10.1097/sla.0000000000002277 · Cited by 268 · see citing works
How Doctors View and Use Social Media: A National Survey
Brown, J., Ryan, C., & Harris, A. (2014) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/jmir.3589 · Cited by 190 · see citing works
George, D. R., & Dellasega, C. A. (2011) · Medical Teacher · doi:10.3109/0142159x.2011.586749 · Cited by 182 · see citing works
International Urology Journal Club via Twitter: 12-Month Experience
Thangasamy, I., Leveridge, M., Davies, B., Finelli, A., Stork, B., & Woo, H. H. (2014) · European Urology · doi:10.1016/j.eururo.2014.01.034 · Cited by 161 · see citing works
Greysen, S. R., Chretien, K. C., Kind, T., Young, A., & Gross, C. P. (2012) · JAMA · doi:10.1001/jama.2012.330 · Cited by 158 · see citing works
Roberts, M. J., Perera, M., Lawrentschuk, N., Romanic, D., Papa, N. P., & Bolton, D. M. (2015) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/jmir.4194 · Cited by 114 · see citing works
Disease-Specific Hashtags for Online Communication About Cancer Care
Katz, M. S., Utengen, A., Anderson, P. F., et al. (2015) · JAMA Oncology · doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2015.3960 · Cited by 100 · see citing works
Using Social Media to Improve Continuing Medical Education: A Survey of Course Participants
Wang, A. T., Sandhu, N. P., Wittich, C. M., Mandrekar, J. N., & Beckman, T. J. (2012) · Mayo Clinic Proceedings · doi:10.1016/j.mayocp.2012.07.024 · Cited by 97 · see citing works
Langenfeld, S. J., Cook, G., Sudbeck, C., Luers, T., & Schenarts, P. J. (2014) · Journal of Surgical Education · doi:10.1016/j.jsurg.2014.05.013 · Cited by 87 · see citing works
Ten Steps for Setting Up an Online Journal Club
Chan, T. M., Thoma, B., Radecki, R. P., et al. (2015) · Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions · doi:10.1002/chp.21275 · Cited by 82 · see citing works
Adilman, R., Rajmohan, Y., Brooks, E., Urgoiti, G. R., Chung, C., Hammad, N., Trinkaus, M., Naseem, M., Simmons, C., Adilman, R., et al. (2016) · Journal of Oncology Practice · doi:10.1200/jop.2015.006429 · Cited by 82 · see citing works
Langenfeld, S. J., Vargo, D. J., & Schenarts, P. J. (2016) · Journal of Surgical Education · doi:10.1016/j.jsurg.2016.07.010 · Cited by 82 · see citing works
Cancer Communication in the Social Media Age
Sedrak, M. S., Cohen, R. B., Merchant, R. M., et al. (2016) · JAMA Oncology · doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2015.5475 · Cited by 77 · see citing works
Attai, D. J., Radford, D. M., & Cowher, M. S. (2016) · Annals of Surgical Oncology · doi:10.1245/s10434-016-5406-x · Cited by 65 · see citing works
Self-citationUse of Twitter to document the 2013 Academic Surgical Congress
Cochran, A. L., Kao, L. S., Gusani, N. J., et al. (2014) · Journal of Surgical Research · doi:10.1016/j.jss.2014.02.029 · Cited by 60 · see citing works
Self-citation(2015) · PubMed · Cited by 55 · see citing works
Novel Uses of Video to Accelerate the Surgical Learning Curve
Ibrahim, A. M., Varban, O. A., & Dimick, J. B. (2016) · Journal of Laparoendoscopic & Advanced Surgical Techniques · doi:10.1089/lap.2016.0100 · Cited by 53 · see citing works
Lamb, L. C., DiFiori, M. M., Jayaraman, V. M., Shames, B. D., & Feeney, J. M. (2017) · Journal of surgical education · doi:10.1016/j.jsurg.2017.05.010 · Cited by 53 · see citing works
Influence of Social Media on the Dissemination of a Traditional Surgical Research Article
Buckarma, E. H., Thiels, C. A., Gas, B. L., et al. (2016) · Journal of surgical education · doi:10.1016/j.jsurg.2016.06.019 · Cited by 51 · see citing works
Reames, B. N., Sheetz, K. H., Englesbe, M. J., & Waits, S. A. (2015) · Journal of surgical education · doi:10.1016/j.jsurg.2015.08.005 · Cited by 49 · see citing works
The emerging role of professional social media use in oncology
Sedrak, M. S., Dizon, D. S., Anderson, P. F., Fisch, M. J., Graham, D. L., Katz, M. S., Kesselheim, J. C., Miller, R. S., Thompson, M. A., Utengen, A., et al. (2017) · Future Oncology · doi:10.2217/fon-2017-0161 · Cited by 42 · see citing works
Self-citationBruns, N. E., Glenn, I. C., McNinch, N. L., et al. (2016) · Surgical Endoscopy · doi:10.1007/s00464-016-5054-z · Cited by 38 · see citing works
Twitter can enhance the medical conference experience
Chapman, S. J., Mayol, J. M., & Brady, R. R. W. (2016) · BMJ · doi:10.1136/bmj.i3973 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Vukušić Rukavina, T., Viskić, J., Machala Poplašen, L., Relić, D., Marelić, M., Jokic, D., & Sedak, K. (2021) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/25770 · Cited by 199 · see citing works
“%) consider SM as a simple information repository that is likely to increase in the continuing professional development space [95].”
InfluentialAre We Witnessing a Paradigm Shift?: A Systematic Review of Social Media in Residency
Economides, J. M., Choi, Y. K., Fan, K. L., Kanuri, A. P., & Song, D. H. (2019) · Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery - Global Open · doi:10.1097/gox.0000000000002288 · Cited by 63 · see citing works
- Authors
- Wagner, J. P., Cochran, A. L., Jones, C., Gusani, N. J., Varghese, T. K., & Attai, D. J.
- Affiliations
- University of Nebraska Medical Center (US)
- University of Utah (US)
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- Pennsylvania State University (US)
- University of California, Los Angeles (US)
- Corresponding author
- Attai, Deanna J.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Journal of Surgical Education
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2018-05
- Volume
- 75
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 804-810
- ISSN
- 1878-7452 (ISSN-L)
- 1931-7204
- OpenAlex
- W2759006706
- Semantic Scholar
- 1a704244a57b7476852df6514b9802a60b3b6062
- Cited by
- 56
- References
- 27
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 5
- FWCI
- 6.98
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of surgical education (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Health › Social Media in Health Education
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Innovations in Medical Education
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Diversity and Career in Medicine
- Keywords
- social media, surgeons, professional networking, attitudes toward social media, barriers to social media use, privacy concerns, time constraints, generational differences, surgical residents, surgical faculty, professional development
- MeSH terms
- Academic Medical Centers, Attitude of Health Personnel, Confidentiality, Education, Medical, Graduate, Female, Humans, Male, Surveys and Questionnaires, United States, Risk Assessment, Social Media, Surgeons
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
