#SoMe4Surgery: from inception to impact

Abstract

Objectives and settingThe aim of this study was to create a hashtag #SoMe4Surgery on the social network application Twitter, and to examine the natural history of the resulting online community.Design and outcome measuresA prospective, four-stage framework was proposed and used: (1) inception phase (connection): users were actively invited to participate; (2) dissemination phase (contagion): several tweetchats were designed, scheduled and run; (3) adherence phase (feedback): Twitonomy and NodeXL summaries were regularly posted on Twitter; and (4) impact phase (outcomes): abstracts and manuscripts, and related projects on Twitter. Tweets, influencers and interactions were analysed, and a brief survey was shared with participants to assess demographics and motivations of social media use.ParticipantsUsers engaging with the #SoMe4Surgery hashtag.ResultsUsers of the hashtag came from a wide variety of specialties and geographical locations, as well as varying in age and stage of training. The inception of #SoMe4Surgery was followed by an increase in the follower count and impressions of users. A total of 675 tweeters posted 11 855 tweets with 30 122 retweets between 28 July and 27 December inclusive. There were new contributors and activity throughout the period. There were many more retweeters than accounts posting original content. Over a 10-day period ending on 31 December 2018, the number of followers of the 10 most influential accounts was higher than the number of followers of the 10 most engaging accounts (p=0.002). The mean (SD) number of tweetchat participants was 121 (64), who posted 719 (365) tweets and had a potential reach of 3 825 155 (1 887 205) accounts. Spin-off projects included surveys from low and medium-income countries, subspecialised hashtags, presentations and one publication.ConclusionsThe creation of a cohesive online surgical community may allow a flattened hierarchy, with increased engagement between surgeons, other healthcare professionals, researchers and patients.

Social media in surgery: evolving role in research communication and beyond

“…Various surgical hashtags exist. #SoMe4Surgery is both one of the most widespread and most surgeon-specific on Twitter [ 39 ] (Fig. 1 ).…”

“…1 ). The hashtag was developed through several phases and described in detail elsewhere [ 39 ]. Briefly, an inception phase was initiated for a connection between participants: users were actively invited to participate.…”

“…Further, a third step was the adherence phase (feedback): Twitonomy and NodeXL summaries were regularly posted on Twitter to gauge and inform activity and response. Eventually, an impact phase in which outcome was the focused gain [ 1 , 39 ]. Created in August 2018, after 2 years and 4 months, the #SoMe4Surgery network and the twitter handle (@me4_so) had reached over 5000 followers, with considerable interaction (Fig.…”

Beyond the hashtag: describing and understanding the full impact of the #BJSConnect tweet chat May 2019

“…The #SoMe4Surgery hashtag, launched on 28 July 2018, has brought clinicians together from across the world, and has catalysed surgical social media research activity, for example around the European Society of Surgical Oncology (ESSO) conference in Budapest, October 2018 (ESSO38) 2 . The large number of tweeting participants in global movements such as #SoMe4Surgery 3 and international conferences makes for a dense social network map that can be difficult to decipher visually. Unpicking a tweet chat, with a more manageable number of participants and tweets, is a more realistic prospect.…”

#OpenSourceResearch: A novel medical research technique/style in terms of accessibility and way of work

“…In 2018, after the '#SoMe4Surgery' collaboration resulted in unexpected success, a collaborative initiative that aimed to conduct more accessible research for medical professionals and patients on Twitter started to bring together highly skilled researchers, junior doctors and medical students under the roof of '#OpenSourceResearch'[1].Since the environment in which scientific work is produced is generally behind closed doors, aspiring medical scientists often find it difficult to become a part of research teams because they are at the very beginning of their career. Upon seeing the opportunity provided by #SoMe4Surgery, many different subspecialties met online and tried to put forward a product to prove that collaborative social media use could have great potential for future research projects.…”