What did the study look at?
The authors note that social media may serve as a route for patient referral, patient and surgeon education and broadening the doctor-patient relationship, but that its benefit to a surgeon's practice is hard to measure and evidence is lacking. The study aimed to give a detailed picture of the existing social media presence of orthopaedic surgeons in the AOSSM and to describe trends across subgroups.
How was it done?
This is a cross-sectional study, a snapshot at one point in time. In June 2021 the AOSSM membership list gave 3334 members. Fellows in training, non-orthopaedic members and those practising outside the United States were excluded, leaving 2870 surgeons.
Standardised Google searches were run for each surgeon, covering the practice website, personal website, ResearchGate, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook. Accounts with posts in the previous 6 months were counted as "active". An online presence score from 0 to 13 was calculated, and results were compared statistically by sex, practice setting (academic or private), region and years in practice.
What did it find?
- 92.1% of the surgeons were men and 7.9% women; 78.2% worked in private and 20.1% in academic practice.
- LinkedIn was the most used platform (56%) and YouTube the least used (10%).
- Academic surgeons had a significantly greater overall online presence than private practice surgeons (mean score 3.77 vs 2.83). Active Twitter use was 24.8% among academic and 9.5% among private practice surgeons.
- Women had higher rates of active Twitter (16.7% vs 12.2%), Instagram (11.5% vs 7.6%) and Facebook (16.3% vs 11.0%) use. After accounting for years in practice, only the Facebook difference remained significant.
- Surgeons with 0 to 14 years in practice had significantly higher online presence scores than those with 15 years or more.
- Surgeons in the Northeast had a higher online presence score than those in every other region.
- A greater number of ResearchGate publications was associated with male sex and academic practice.
The authors' conclusion
The authors stress that the effects of social media use on practice patterns, patient outcomes and surgical volume are unknown. They report that LinkedIn was the most used platform in this group, and that surgeons in academic practice, women, those early in their careers and those in the Northeast were more likely to have an active online presence than the rest of the AOSSM.
Limitations
- A cross-sectional design cannot establish cause and effect.
- Accounts created after data collection, and private profiles, may have been missed.
- The number of ResearchGate publications may not fully reflect academic productivity.
- Surgeons were classed only as academic or private; hybrid practice models were not analysed separately.
- Data were collected during the COVID-19 pandemic, so the picture may differ from before it.
- The study makes no claims about the effect of social media on patient volume or quality measures.
Reference
Kerzner B, Hodakowski A, Fortier LM, Dasari SP, Swindell HW, Rea PM, Khan ZA, Gürsoy S, Bush-Joseph CA, Verma NN, Chahla J. (2023). Evaluation of Social Media and Online Utilization Among Members of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine: Implications in Practice. Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine, 11(4), 23259671221143567. Licence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
DOI: 10.1177/23259671221143567
Free full text: PMC10134141
This article summarises a published scientific paper for general information; it does not replace an examination or a personal medical assessment. Please consult your doctor about your symptoms.
