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Editorial

Social media in medicine: The volume that Twitter built

The use of social media around the world has exploded in recent years, with the number of monthly active users of Facebook and Twitter estimated to be one billion and one quarter billion, respectively (CitationFacebook, 2014; Twitter, 2015). Healthcare professionals and learners are among the users of social media, raising questions of how Facebook, Twitter, and other novel online tools may best be harnessed to further medicine's research, patient care, and educational goals. Because social media enables an immediate exchange of information and ideas around shared areas of interest, it has fostered communication and collaboration among a global network of scientific investigators, clinicians, patients, and learners. Psychiatry has been a relatively late adopter of social media compared to other medical specialities, perhaps due – in part – to heightened concerns regarding patient confidentiality and clinician privacy. This social media in medicine issue of the International Review of Psychiatry will explore these and other topics relevant not only to psychiatrists, but all of all healthcare stakeholders.

Not only is this the first ever volume of the International Review of Psychiatry whose content is focused on social media, but this is also the first volume of this journal developed almost entirely via social media. All of the articles in this issue, with the exception of two, were authored by individuals I first encountered on Twitter. Thus, this is truly the first volume of the International Review of Psychiatry that Twitter built.

The papers in this issue focus on a spectrum of topics of interest both to academic and non-academic scientific investigators, clinicians, educators, and trainees, as well as patients. The goal is to critically review the available evidence regarding an array of topics, ranging from research ethics to educational endeavours. The issue also includes several personal reflections by an experienced group of clinicians and learners, who have diverse opinions regarding the value of social media in medicine.

This volume begins with an exploration of the use of social media in research. Natalie Lafferty and Annalisa Manca from the University of Dundee review the types of social media tools currently being used in research, how these tools are being used, and both the benefits and challenges of their use. The use of social media in research is an area of intense innovation, with many methodological approaches still in the process of being tested. Nevertheless, this review will be of use to scientific investigators, including psychiatrists, who are interested in developing a more informed approach to the use of social media in research. A related topic is addressed by Matthew DeCamp from the Johns Hopkins University Berman Institute of Bioethics and School of Medicine who reviews the major ethical issues arising from social media use in research, public health, mobile health applications, and global health. As social media tools continue to emerge, understanding the relevant ethical issues will be critical to the success of healthcare applications while preserving medicine's core value as a public trust. Public good also plays a role in online professionalism, as described by Katherine Chretien and Matthew Tuck from the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Services. An area of keen interest to psychiatrists, they characterize the methodological approaches of the social media and professionalism studies to date, with an eye to enhancing future research in this important area.

Online professionalism is essential given social media's inherently public nature. Such open discourse has its advantages, especially to patients. Social media can be used to encourage conversations about specific disorders and their treatment and to offer support for patients via public awareness campaigns, as well as online social groups. Neil Mehta of Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University and Ashish Atreja of Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai provide an overview of online support groups, their unique challenges, and how they can complement traditional healthcare delivery models.

A major emphasis of this issue is on the use of social media in medical education. Social media – integrated into training at the undergraduate, graduate, and continuing medical education levels – has the potential to enhance lifelong learning. Terry Kind of George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences and Yolanda Evans of University of Washington School of Medicine present examples from the peer-reviewed literature of how the use of social media in the training of medical and other healthcare students can provide them the skills they will need for lifelong learning. Medical conferences also represent an opportunity to incorporate social media into lifelong learning, as described by Alexander Djuricich and Janine Zee-Chang of Indiana University School of Medicine. The authors focus on how Twitter can be used by physicians and other healthcare providers at local, regional, national, and international conferences to expand on the formal education provided in these venues. Using a detailed content analysis of the Twitter transcript from one international conference, Alireza Jalali and Stephanie Sutherland of University of Ottawa and Jonathan Sherbino and Jason Frank of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, suggest several mechanisms by which this social media tool is able to enhance the educational value of academic conferences.

The final section of the issue features more personal viewpoints regarding social media in medicine. First, Joel Topf of the Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine and Swapnil Hiremath of the University of Ottawa offer an engaging history of medical education media (from print to social) to introduce the story of their creation of a Twitter-based nephrology journal club. Next, Steve Daviss and Annette Hanson of the University of Maryland School of Medicine and Dinah Miller of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine share how they have maintained a blog since 2006, produced over 65 audio podcasts, and participated in other forms of social media, including Twitter. The authors each provide a narrative account of his/her personal social media journey: Daviss as an advocate for our profession, Hanson as a medical educator, and Miller as a patient advocate. John Weiner of the Monash University School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine provides an equally deeply informed, but different, perspective. The author, who is 67 years old and has maintained a medical blog since 1998, is considered a pioneer in the field of social media in medicine. Yet he remains ‘restless and confused’ on the topic, and in his reflection raises a number of compelling questions about the impact of these tools on clinical excellence and medical education, which are to be ‘answered in the next generation.’ This leads to the final paper in the issue, by Brent Thoma of the University of Saskatchewan, who describes how, as an emergency medicine resident, he created a blog – at first using a pseudonym – as a way of gingerly exploring social media. Thoma is now one of the leading scholars in the field of social media in medicine and has clearly found his voice.

It is hoped that the papers included in this special issue convey the excitement of participating in this cutting-edge field, as well as some of the challenges. These papers will hopefully encourage ideas and questions and inspire more research into the use of social media in all aspects of medicine: research, patient care, and education. I am grateful to the authors and reviewers for the enormous time and energy devoted to this issue and thank the editors for the invitation to produce such a timely volume.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

References

  • Facebook. (2014). Facebook Newsroom. Retrieved 30 April 2014 from http://newsroom.fb.com/company-info/ (Facebook, December 31, 2014; accessed today 3/23/15)
  • Twitter. (2014). About Twitter. Retrieved 30 April 2014 from https://about.twitter.com/company (Twitter, 2015, accessed today 3/23/15)

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