Prevalence of Internet and social media usage in orthopedic surgery

Abstract

Prior studies in other specialties have shown that social networking and Internet usage has become an increasingly important means of patient communication and referral. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the prevalence of Internet or social media usage in new patients referred to a major academic orthopedics center and to identify new avenues to optimize patient recruitment and communication. New patients were surveyed (n=752) between December 2012 to January 2013 in a major academic orthopaedic center to complete a 15-item questionnaire including social media and Internet usage information. Data was collected for all orthopaedic sub-specialties and statistical analysis was performed. Fifty percent of patients use social networking sites, such as Facebook. Sports medicine patients tend to be higher social networking users (35.9%) relative to other services (9.8-17.9%) and was statistically higher when compared to the joints/tumor service (P<0.0001). Younger age was the biggest indicator predicting the use of social media. Patients that travelled between 120 to 180 miles from the hospital for their visits were significantly more likely to be social media users, as were patients that did research on their condition prior to their new patient appointment. We conclude that orthopedic patients who use social media/Internet are more likely to be younger, researched their condition prior to their appointment and undergo a longer average day’s travel (120-180 miles) to see a physician. In an increasingly competitive market, surgeons with younger patient populations will need to utilize social networking and the Internet to capture new patient referrals.

Online Patient Ratings of Hand Surgeons

“…Consequently, some authors have advocated for the use of online social media in orthopedic surgery practice as a means for advertising and/or highlighting positive patient experiences. 17,18 We did not find a consistent association between mean overall patient ratings and hand surgeon age, sex, years in practice, practice type (ie, academic vs private practice), and/or geographic region on all 3 Web sites. No consistent trends were observed with these variables in previous studies in different physician and geographic populations.…”

YouTube as a Source of Information About the Posterior Cruciate Ligament: A Content-Quality and Reliability Analysis

“…[14][15][16][17] Considering that internet and social media use is more common in younger patients and in patients seeking treatment by sports orthopaedic surgeons, understanding the quality of online video content regarding PCL injuries is particularly important because the average age of patients with PCL injuries is 27.5 years. 17,18 To evaluate the reliability and educational content of YouTube videos concerning injuries to the PCL of the knee, the authors hypothesized that the quality and reliability of educational content on the PCL would be low.…”

The Effectiveness Of Education Types And Methods In the Improvement Of Orthopedic Surgical Patients’ Knowledge And Capability: A Literature Review

“…In general, it is predicted that web-based learning can save cost and is more comfortable (17,19,26). Patients who use Internet-based education such as web or social media are mostly young people and having a resident with long distance to health service (120-180 miles) (20). However, research concludes that the required cost to get internet access to join internet or web-based education is not different with traveling expense for face to face-education (10).…”

“…Web-based education (web-based tutorial) is one of learning and educational methods for patients by employing multimedia technology. Six studies state that web-based education can improve the quality of knowledge of orthopedic patients in care (11,(16)(17)(18)(19)(20). Meanwhile, one review reported that there was no difference in the increase in awareness of patients given web-based education or face to face (8).…”