Evaluating Social Media Use Among Active American Members of the Cervical Spine Research Society

Abstract

Objectives: The objectives of this study are (1) to quantify social media use among active American Cervical Spine Research Society (CSRS) members; (2) to determine if there is an association between practice setting, region, or years of active membership and social media use. Summary of Background Data:Many patients now seek health and physician information online, including on social media. Indeed, social media use by orthopedic surgeons has been shown to be associated with more and improved ratings on physician review websites. Further, social media can provide a means for improved doctor-patient relationships, educational endeavors, and professional networking. However, there is a paucity of literature examining social media use among spine surgeons. Materials and Methods:In January 2019, the CSRS membership directory was used to identify all active American spine surgeon members. Through a Google search, social media use of each spine surgeon on the following platforms was identified: provider page/ official website; Facebook; Twitter; Instagram; LinkedIn; and YouTube. In addition, surgeon characteristics were recorded. The percentage of spine surgeons using each social media platform was reported. Bivariate analysis was used to compare social media use by practice setting, region, and years of active CSRS membership.Results: Nearly all spine surgeons have a provider page/official website (98%) and over half (56%) have a LinkedIn presence. Less than one third of spine surgeons are on any of the remaining social media platforms analyzed. The least frequently used social media platform was Instagram (3.2%). There was no difference in any social media platform use by practice setting, region, and years of active CSRS membership.Conclusions: As social media becomes even more common place and the role of it in medical care continues to be better defined, there is notable room for increased social media use among active American members of the CSRS.

Evaluation of Social Media and Online Utilization Among Members of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine: Implications in Practice

“…Consistent with prior studies on social media usage, LinkedIn was the most frequently reported social media platform utilized, with 56.1% of the sports medicine surgeons included in our study having a LinkedIn account. Bernstein et al 3 performed a similar analysis of CSRS members and found that 56% of surgeons had a LinkedIn account, while Narain et al 14 similarly reported that 61% of shoulder and elbow surgeons had a LinkedIn account. Lander et al 12 reported a slightly lower presence on LinkedIn (36.8%) among fellowship-trained pediatric orthopaedic surgeons; however, LinkedIn was still the most popular platform reported after professional webpages.…”

“…However, these differences in the social media presence between academic and private practice surgeons were not observed in the previous literature on CSRS members or shoulder and elbow surgeons. 3 , 14 …”

“…By percentage, academic surgeons had a larger social media presence on nearly every platform except personal websites, Facebook, and YouTube. There was a significant association with practice type and activity on Twitter (OR, 3…”

“…Several studies have evaluated social media activity at the organizational level to define the existing landscape for orthopaedic subspecialty societies, including the American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons (ASES), Cervical Spine Research Society (CSRS), and Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America (POSNA). 3 , 12 , 14 One study investigated wait times and online reviews for a small number of sports medicine–trained surgeons and found that social media presence was correlated with higher overall physician ratings. 18 Yet, no studies have investigated the online presence of the orthopaedic sports medicine community as a whole to discern whether differences exist based on surgeon demographics, location, level of training, and experience.…”

How are Patients Describing You Online? A Natural Language Processing Driven Sentiment Analysis of Online Reviews on CSRS Surgeons

“…In a study by Donnally et al, 3 it was found that spine surgeons who have a social media account (eg, Instagram, Facebook) are more likely to have higher online review scores. For Cervical Spine Research Society (CSRS) surgeons in particular, Benstein et al 5 saw that the majority of members have a professional website or LinkedIn, although less utilize social media platforms (ie, Instagram; 3.2%). Thus, increasing the social media presence among CSRS members may be a worthwhile endeavor.…”