Objective: The use of social media in medicine has greatly expanded in recent years The objective of this study was to characterize the use of social media among members of the American Urological Association (AUA).
Patients and Methods: In December 2012-January 2013, the AUA emailed a survey with 34 questions on social media use to 2000 randomly selected urologists and 2047 resident/fellow members Additional data was collected from Symplur analytics on social media utilization surrounding the AUA annual meeting in May 2013.
Results: A total of 382 (9.4%) surveys were completed, indicating 74% of responders had an online social media account The most commonly used social media platforms were Facebook (93%), followed in descending order by LinkedIn (46%), Twitter (36%) and Google+ (26%) Age younger than 40 was an important predictor of social media use (83% vs. 56%), with greater uptake among residents/fellows compared to attending (86% vs. 66%) Only 28% of respondents used social media partly or entirely for professional purposes During the AUA 2013 meeting, there were >5,000 tweets from >600 distinct contributors.
Conclusion: As of early 2013, among respondents to an email survey, most urologists and urology trainees used some form of social media, and its use in urology conferences has greatly expanded.
Written by:
Loeb S, Bayne CE, Frey C, Davies BJ, Averch TD, Woo HH, Stork B, Cooperberg MR, Eggener SE; American Urological Association Social Media Work Group Are you the author?
Department of Urology and Population Health (SL), New York University and the Manhattan Veterans Affairs Medical Center, NY, NY, USA.
Reference: BJU Int. 2013 Nov 26. (Epub ahead of print]
doi: 10.1111/bju.12586
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 24274744
