Efficacy of a digital media platform to combat inequities in global oncology education.

Abstract

132 Background: Social media has emerged as a powerful vehicle for the dissemination of medical information, especially in resource-limited regions, due to its mass global reach. However, 1/3 of social media posts contain misinformation with 76.9% of them containing harmful information leading to adverse outcomes that are a detriment to global public health. To address this, MedNews Week (MNW), a free, digital medical education platform dedicated to combating healthcare misinformation, was developed to contribute to global oncology education through biweekly programming. Its main show, Keynote Conference, features live virtual presentations from oncology’s premier global leaders discussing the latest developments in cancer before a mainstream global audience. The aim of this study was to assess the worldwide reach and impact of this cost-free, virtual oncology education platform. Methods: From January 2022 to 2023, MNW hosted 25 global oncology leaders as Keynote Speakers (Mean H-index=50.09). Viewership, impressions, and outreach data were collected from MNW’s social media accounts and TweepMaps. Data was analyzed to assess MNW’s global reach and engagement and stratified based on engagement sentiment, gender, age group, and occupation. Results: During this period, MNW generated a Healthcare Social Graph Score of 92.77% (top 7.33 percentile of global healthcare influencers) with over 109,128 Twitter impressions and 4,731 engagements reaching 1.9 million accounts globally over 12 months (Table). Most of the followers were from non-healthcare fields with slightly more males than females. Those who engaged conveyed positive sentiments (59.9% likes and 26.2% mentions) contributing to a viewership increase from 72,136 (6 months) to 157,559 (1 year). The platform reached 100 cities and 57 countries of which 16 were of low-to-middle socioeconomic (SE) status. Conclusions: MNW has demonstrated an ability to attract and sustain a diverse, global, growing audience. Given MNW’s continued growth, it provides an innovative model to engage and disseminate medical information to mainstream audiences. The platform’s ability to showcase global leaders to mainstream audiences gratuitously, especially in lower SE regions that have been historically underserved, offers a practical approach to combat educational inequity. Thus, MNW represents a novel approach with promising potential to positively impact global oncology education.[Table: see text]