Social media is a necessary component of the practice of surgery. Each surgeon must
embrace the power and potential of social media and serve as a guide or content expert
for patients and other health care providers to facilitate and share responsible use
of the various media available. Social media facilitates rapid communication of information
not only across providers but also between patients and providers. The power of social
media has the potential to improve consultation and collaboration, facilitate patient
education, and expand research efforts; moreover, by harnessing its potential, the
appropriate use of many of the avenues of social media also can be used to disseminate
campaigns to increase disease awareness and communicate new research findings and
best-practice guidelines. Because its reach is so broad within as well as outside
the censorship of medical experts, professional oversight and engagement is required
to maximize responsible use. Staying consistent with our history of surgery, rich
in innovation and technologic advancement, surgeons must get to the front of this
evolving field and direct the path of social media as it applies to the practice of
surgery rather than take a passive role.
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to SurgeryAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Lessons learned about public health from online crowd surveillance.Big Data. 2013; 1: 160-167
- Use of the internet to communicate with health care providers in the United States: estimates from the 2003 and 2005 Health Information National Trends Surveys (HINTS).J Med Internet Res. 2007; 12: e20
- How doctors view and use social media: a national survey.J Med Internet Res. 2014; 16: e267
- Integration of social media in emergency medicine residency curriculum.Ann Emerg Med. 2014; 64: 396-404
- Patients’ perspective of accessibility and digital delivery of factual content provided by official medical and surgical specialty websites: a qualitative assessment.Interact J Med Res. 2015; 4: e7
- Analysis of YouTubeTM videos related to bowel preparation for colonoscopy.World J Gastrointest Endosc. 2014; 6: 432-435
- Effect of social media in health care and orthopedic surgery.Orthopedics. 2012; 35: 294-297
- Biological, psychological and social processes that explain celebrities’ influence on patients’ health-related behaviors.Arch Public Health. 2015; 73: 3
EIF Entertainment Industry FoundationTM. Available from: http://www.eifoundation.org/programs/eifs-national-colorectal-cancer-research-alliance/content/katie-couric-colon-cancer-awarene.
“TV pitchman Kevin Trudeau gets 10-year sentence.” Available from: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/03/17/kevin-trudeau-sentenced/6546433/.
“Social Networking Fact Sheet.” Pew Research Centers Internet American Life Project RSS. Pew Research Center. Available from: http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/social-networking-fact-sheet/.
- Randomized clinical trial of sacral versus percutaneous tibial nerve stimulation in patients with faecal incontinence.Br J Surg. 2015; 102: 349-358
- Hidden in plain sight: a crowdsourced public art contest to make automated external defibrillators more visible.Am J Public Health. 2014; 104: 2306-2312
- A comparative legal analysis of social media advertising of drugs in Germany and the United States.Food Drug Law J. 2013; 68: 259-279
- Evaluation of initial participation in public reporting of American College of Surgeons NSQIP surgical outcomes on Medicare’s hospital compare website.J Am Coll Surg. 2014; 218: 374-380
- Surgeon-level reporting presented by funnel plot is understood by doctors but inaccurately interpreted by members of the public.J Surg Educ. 2014; 72: 500-503
Article info
Publication history
Published online: July 02, 2015
Accepted:
June 8,
2015
Identification
Copyright
Published by Elsevier Inc.
