Balancing Privacy and Professionalism: A Survey of General Surgery Program Directors on Social Media and Surgical Education

Langenfeld, Sean J.; Vargo, Daniel; Schenarts, Paul J.

doi:10.1016/j.jsurg.2016.07.010

Cited by 78 publications

(69 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…8,9 We then conducted a survey of general surgery program directors, where we found a self-reported rate of Facebook use to be much higher at 67%. 10 This is similar to a 2010 survey conducted by the American College of Surgeons (ACS) that found utilization of Facebook among surgeons to be 54.8%. 11 Since that survey was conducted 7 years ago, it is safe to assume that utilization has increased over this time.…”

Section: Social Media Utilizationsupporting

confidence: 80%

How Can Social Media Get Us in Trouble?

Langenfeld

Batra

2017

Clinics in Colon and Rectal Surgery

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When utilized properly, social media offers several personal and professional benefits for the practicing surgeon, including peer networking, education, e-mentorship, marketing, recruitment, and patient outreach. However, unprofessional online behavior is common among surgeons, and this improper use of social media can be quite dangerous. This article reviews the dangers of social media and illustrates this with examples of unprofessional behavior and the associated consequences. It also provides recommendations for maintaining a professional and productive online persona. Surgeons must understand the various social media platforms and their target audience while upholding online professionalism at all times.

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Section: Social Media Utilizationsupporting

confidence: 80%

How Can Social Media Get Us in Trouble?

Langenfeld

Batra

2017

Clinics in Colon and Rectal Surgery

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“…2–4 In the United States, 80% of those who use the Internet use it to search for health information, with almost three quarters of these individuals using social media. 5 Social media can be leveraged to expand and improve knowledge exchange, networking, professional development, health promotion, dissemination of updates in standard medical practices, promote health systems, and provide employment or research opportunities in the medical field.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Age-related differences in social media use in the neurosurgical community: A multi-institutional study

Udawatta

Phillips

et al. 2019

Clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery

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Objectives: Social media is evolving and growing at an exponential rate today. From a healthcare perspective, these platforms can be used to enhance professional networking, education, organizational promotion, patient care, patient education, and public health programs without the limitations of geographic and time-related access barriers. Given the possible importance of social media in medicine, and the conflicting reports in literature about its use in healthcare, it is important to identify its utility within the neurosurgical community. We set out to measure the use of social media platforms among neurosurgery faculty, fellows, and residents. Patients and Methods: An online survey using the SurveyMonkey platform was sent to the program directors of 102 accredited neurosurgery programs across the United States. Program directors then distributed these surveys to the residents, fellows, and attendings at their respective institutions once each month between October 2017 and December 2017. Neurosurgeons participated anonymously, voluntarily, and received no compensation for their participation. Statistical analysis was performed using the IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 25 (IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, IBM Corporation, Armonk, NY). Results: 137 attendings, 96 residents, and 8 fellows responded to the survey (81% male). Most (70%) stated that they used social media for professional purposes. Sixty percent of all respondents believed that social media can be beneficial in terms of professional development. Younger neurosurgeons in training were more likely to read journal articles found via social media and were more likely to believe social media could be beneficial than older neurosurgeons at later stages in their career. Conclusions: Results point toward differences in social media use based on age or level of training. Further studies should include a larger sample cohort over a longer time period to determine whether these trends will change over time.

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“…Is social media really such a negative thing or is the real issue that for many medical academics social media is poorly understood and the easy option is to discourage students from using it? I believe so and agree with Langenfeld et al (2016) that there is a need for standardized policies to educate medical professionals on social media professionalism.…”

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confidence: 59%

“…Another student described the underlying feeling and belief amongst medical students that the "GMC [General Medical Council] are everywhere" monitoring and recording any unruly behavior on social media or otherwise which could damage their record and influence their career progression. Langenfeld et al (2016) reported that such practice does take place in areas of the United States with 18% of surgical program directors visiting social media profiles of medical students and 45% visiting profiles of surgical residents, often resulting in candidates being lowered in rank or formally disciplined based on their social media behavior. Although one could argue that this is an invasion of privacy, most of the program directors did not concur, instead believing that medical professionals should be held accountable for their online behavior (Langenfeld et al, 2016) regardless of the intended audience.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Langenfeld et al (2016) reported that such practice does take place in areas of the United States with 18% of surgical program directors visiting social media profiles of medical students and 45% visiting profiles of surgical residents, often resulting in candidates being lowered in rank or formally disciplined based on their social media behavior. Although one could argue that this is an invasion of privacy, most of the program directors did not concur, instead believing that medical professionals should be held accountable for their online behavior (Langenfeld et al, 2016) regardless of the intended audience. This seems a good argument since online social media content is open to the public, unless appropriate privacy settings are in place.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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