The Digital Impact of Neurosurgery Awareness Month: Retrospective Infodemiology Study (Preprint)

Abstract

BACKGROUND Neurosurgery Awareness Month (NAM) was initiated by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. Bringing neurological conditions to the forefront and sharing knowledge to enlighten the public is the goal of NAM. Digital media is key disseminating information, connecting with influencers and sharing opinions. It is crucial to understand the impact of awareness months to quantify their efficiency, global reach and to optimize resource allocation. OBJECTIVE The purpose of our study was to examine the digital impact of Neurosurgery Awareness Month to inform future Healthcare Awareness Campaigns. METHODS We used four social media assessment tools (Sprout Social, SocioViz, Symplur, and SentimentViz) and Google Trends to obtain data about the total tweets, global impressions, and sentiment from countries worldwide about NAM. RESULTS 10,007 users were identified during NAM using the ‘#neurosurgery’ that fetched over 29.14 million impressions globally. Five of the top 10 most influential users were faculty neurosurgeons at US-university hospitals. Others included notable organizations and journals. Network analysis of the top 100 influencers, showed a collaboration rate of 81 percent. Only 1.6% of the total neurosurgery tweets were advocating about neurosurgery awareness during NAM. Only 13 tweets were posted by verified users using the #neurosurgeryawarenessmonth. CONCLUSIONS The global digital impact of neurosurgery awareness month is nascent and support from other international organizations and neurosurgical influencers is needed to yield a significant digital reach.