Social media for research discourse, dissemination, and collaboration in rheumatology

Abstract

Social media has become an important venue for rheumatologists, patients, organizations, and other stakeholders to discuss recent research advances in diagnosis and management of rheumatic disorders. In this article, we describe the current state of how social media may enhance dissemination, discourse, and collaboration in rheumatology research. Social media may refer to social platforms like Twitter and Instagram or digital media like podcasts and other websites that are operated for providing as free, open-access medical education (FOAM). Twitter has been one of the most active social media venues and continues to host a vibrant rheumatology community. Examples of research discussions on Twitter include organic user tweets, educational threads (“tweetorials”), live-tweeting academic conferences, and journals posting recently-accepted articles. Some research collaborations have been initiated through social media interactions. Social media may also directly contribute to research by facilitating the recruitment of study participants and the collection of survey-based data. Thus, social media is an evolving and important tool to enhance research discourse, dissemination, and collaboration in rheumatology.

Using Twitter (X) to Mobilize Knowledge for First Contact Physiotherapists: Qualitative Study

“…FCPs reported being most likely to engage with tweets containing prepackaged knowledge and salient points of research evidence. This aligns with the emergence of knowledge translation tools such as actionable nuggets [ 28 ] and clinical knowledge summaries [ 29 ] and recent commentary discussing how Tweetorials (a collection of tweets that aim at educating users who engage with them) and tweet threads (a series of connected posts from one person) are useful to keep up to date with research findings [ 30 ]. Visual posts were reported by participants as being most engaging, aligning with a 2019 systematic review that found that health care professionals believe infographics reduce the time burden of reading full texts [ 31 ].…”

The Impact of COVID‐19 on Education and Training in Rheumatology: A Narrative Review

“…The pandemic also provided an opportunity to demonstrate the potential power of social media to facilitate, conduct, and disseminate research. 49 Nearly simultaneous with the onset of the pandemic was the formation of the GRA, an international collaboration designed to investigate outcomes of patients with rheumatic disease during the pandemic. 50 Although the pandemic limited research opportunities for many investigators, avenues to new research were opened regarding outcomes of patients with rheumatic disease who were infected with COVID-19 as well as their response to vaccination and prophylactic monoclonal antibody therapy.…”

“…The pandemic also provided an opportunity to demonstrate the potential power of social media to facilitate, conduct, and disseminate research 49 . Nearly simultaneous with the onset of the pandemic was the formation of the GRA, an international collaboration designed to investigate outcomes of patients with rheumatic disease during the pandemic 50 .…”

Social media and its impact on rheumatology

“…Coler-Reilly et al . [ 7 ] present a narrative review on social media for research discourse, dissemination, and collaboration focused on rheumatology. They describe how many social platforms, especially Twitter, can facilitate research collaboration, clinician education, and patient engagement.…”