| Title |
Educational content and the use of social media at US departments of surgery
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
Surgery, December 2017
|
| DOI | 10.1016/j.surg.2017.10.039 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Vahagn C. Nikolian, Meredith Barrett, Valeria S. Valbuena, Andrew M. Ibrahim, Hassan Eidy, Mohamed H. Ghandour, Amir A. Ghaferi |
| Abstract |
The growth of the social media platform Twitter has prompted many to consider its potential as an educational tool. Little is known about how surgery training programs are utilizing this resource and whether this platform can provide educational content effectively. We sought to determine national utilization of Twitter by departments of surgery in the United States and evaluate if educationally driven content heightened engagement with the Twitter followers. We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of social media presence for all Accreditation Council for Graduation Medical Education accredited general surgery training programs between October 1, 2016 and December 31, 2016. Each tweet was characterized as either promotional or educational. Metrics related to account engagement, including impressions (number of times a tweet is seen) and retweets (number of times a tweet is shared), were compared. These results were compared against a single departmental account focused primarily on educational content. Thirty-two departmental Twitter accounts were identified from the 272 programs approached associated with accredited general surgery training programs. Training programs posted a median of 1.0 unique tweets (interquartile range: 0.6-2.3) per week. Tweets were primarily promotional (81% of posts) and generated marginal engagement with followers (3.4 likes/tweet; 1.5 retweets/tweet). In contrast, a single, resident-run departmental account at our institution (University of Michigan) focused on educational content generated consistent, educational content (19.6 unique tweets/week, 48% of which were educational), which resulted in increased engagement with followers (11.4 likes/tweet; 5.9 retweets/tweet) compared to other accounts. Though Twitter is being widely adopted widely by departments of surgery, it is primarily utilized for promotional content. Use of educational content may improve engagement from followers. (Surgery 2017;160:XXX-XXX.). |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 111 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 56 | 50% |
| Spain | 5 | 5% |
| United Kingdom | 4 | 4% |
| Canada | 2 | 2% |
| Italy | 1 | <1% |
| Saint Barthélemy | 1 | <1% |
| Malaysia | 1 | <1% |
| Turkey | 1 | <1% |
| Indonesia | 1 | <1% |
| Other | 5 | 5% |
| Unknown | 34 | 31% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 52 | 47% |
| Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 33 | 30% |
| Scientists | 22 | 20% |
| Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 4 | 4% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 38 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Unknown | 38 | 100% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Master | 6 | 16% |
| Researcher | 5 | 13% |
| Student > Doctoral Student | 3 | 8% |
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 3 | 8% |
| Student > Postgraduate | 3 | 8% |
| Other | 5 | 13% |
| Unknown | 13 | 34% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Medicine and Dentistry | 13 | 34% |
| Engineering | 2 | 5% |
| Mathematics | 1 | 3% |
| Business, Management and Accounting | 1 | 3% |
| Nursing and Health Professions | 1 | 3% |
| Other | 5 | 13% |
| Unknown | 15 | 39% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 60. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 14 August 2018.
All research outputs
#707,646
of 25,382,440 outputs
Outputs from Surgery
#64
of 6,478 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#15,959
of 445,007 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Surgery
#4
of 202 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,382,440 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 97th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 6,478 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 6.7. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 445,007 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 96% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 202 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its contemporaries.