Objective: Social media is playing an increasingly important role in medicine as a tool for patients and their families to find information and connect with others. The goal of this study is to understand parental views on if and how social media should be incorporated into pediatric otolaryngology by physicians and hospitals. Methods: A survey was distributed to parents of pediatric otolaryngologic patients to assess views on professional social media use by physicians and hospitals. The proportion of parents who answered with specific responses in the survey was computed using the SPSS frequency analysis function. Results: One hundred five parents completed the survey. Ninety-six percent of respondents use social media, of which 92% use social media at least once a day (n = 93). Eighty-five percent of respondents said they definitely or probably would visit their physician’s professional social media page (n = 90). Seventy-four percent would be interested in obtaining more information about the physician (n = 76). Forty-one percent would be interested in patient stories (n = 76). Twenty-eight percent would visit out of curiosity (n = 76). Twenty-six percent would want to gather more information about the hospital (n = 76). Seventeen percent would want to connect with other patients and their family members (n = 76). Sixty-seven percent of respondents believe it is important for physicians to have a professional social media page, and 79% of respondents believe it is important for hospitals to have a public social media page (n = 93). Conclusion: The vast majority of parents of pediatric otolaryngologic patients use social media regularly and would want to gather information about their physician and hospital through social media. Therefore, physicians and hospitals should consider using social media as a valuable tool to connect with and relay information to patients and their family members.
Objective: To characterize the use of race and socioeconomic status (SES) variables in clinical otolarynogologic research. Methods: Databases were queried for all articles published in 2016 issues of 5 major otolaryngologic journals. One thousand, one hundred and forty of 1593 articles abstracted met inclusion criteria for analysis. Results: In total, 244 (21.4%) studies specified race as a variable. The subspecialty of Head and Neck cancer specified race at statistically higher rates compared to other subspecialties ( P = .002). Two hundred nine (34.0%) domestic studies specified race compared to 35 (6.7%) international studies. Of the 244 studies that specified race, 79 (32.4%) defined race using racial and ethnic categories interchangeably. Two hundred twenty-four (91.8%) studies reported data by race, 145 (59.4%) analyzed the data, and 112 (45.9%) discussed race-based results. In total, 94 (8.2%) studies specified SES. All subspecialties specified SES at statistically similar rates. Seventy (11.4%) domestic studies specified SES compared to 24 (4.6%) international studies. Of the 94 studies that specified SES, 42 (44.7%) defined SES using insurance status, 35 (37.2%) used education, and 32 (34.0%) used income. Seventy-eight (83.0%) studies reported data by SES, 71 (75.5%) analyzed the data, and 68 (72.3%) discussed SES-based results. Conclusion: In clinical otolaryngologic research, the study of race and SES is limited. To improve quality of research and patient care for all patients, investigators should clearly justify their use of race and SES variables, carefully select their measures of race and SES (if the use of these variables is justified), and study race/SES-based data beyond just a superficial level.
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