Who should you be following? The top 100 social media influencers in orthopaedic surgery

Abstract

BACKGROUNDSocial media has been credited with the potential to transform medicine, and Twitter was recently named “an essential tool” for the academic surgeon. Despite this, peer-to-peer and educational influence on social media has not been studied within orthopaedic surgery. This knowledge is important to identify who is controlling the conversation about orthopaedics to the public. We hypothesized that the plurality of top influencers would be sports medicine surgeons, that social media influence would not be disconnected from academic productivity, and that some of the top social media influencers in orthopaedic surgery would not be orthopaedic surgeons.AIMTo identify the top 100 social media influencers within orthopaedics, characterize who they are, and relate their social media influence to academic influence.METHODSTwitter influence scores for the topic “orthopaedics” were collected in July 2018 using Right Relevance software. The accounts with the top influence scores were linked to individual names, and the account owners were characterized with respect to specialty, subspecialty, practice setting, location, board certification, and academic Hirsch index (h-index).RESULTSSeventy-eight percent of top influencers were orthopaedic surgeons. The most common locations included California (13%), Florida (8%), New York (7%), United Kingdom (7%), Colorado (6%), and Minnesota (6%). The mean academic h-index of the top influencers (n = 79) was 13.67 ± 4.12 (mean ± 95%CI) and median 7 (range 1-89) (median reported h-index of academic orthopaedic faculty is 5 and orthopaedic chairpersons is 13). Of the 78 orthopaedic surgeons, the most common subspecialties were sports medicine (54%), hand and upper extremity (18%), and spine (8%). Most influencers worked in private practice (53%), followed by academics (17%), privademics (14%), and hospital-based (9%). All eligible orthopaedic surgeons with publicly-verifiable board certification statuses were board-certified (n = 74).CONCLUSIONThe top orthopaedic social media influencers on Twitter were predominantly board-certified, sports-medicine subspecialists working in private practice in the United States. Social media influence was highly concordant with academic productivity as measured by the academic h-index. Though the majority of influencers are orthopaedic surgeons, 22% of top influencers on Twitter are not, which is important to identify given the potential for these individuals to influence patients’ perceptions and expectations. This study also provides the top influencer network for other orthopaedic surgeons to engage with on social media to improve their own social media influence.

Correlation Between Social Media Posts and Academic Citations of Orthopaedic Research

“…The role of social media platforms in orthopaedic research has expanded in recent years. Both patients and surgeons increasingly look to social media platforms such as Twitter to communicate, educate, and disseminate information, 1 2 3 4 5 6 and many academic journals have adopted Twitter profiles in response. 7 , 8 In this study, through a systematic analysis of recent research publications in three high-impact orthopaedic surgery journals, we have shown that social media posting is weakly, but markedly, correlated with academic citation.…”

“…The use of social networking and microblogging platforms for novel information in orthopaedic surgery has risen in recent years among patients and physicians alike. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Web-based social media platforms are increasingly used to share and disseminate original scientific research. Many academic journals have adopted Twitter profiles to have a greater social media presence, both within the academic community and the general public.…”

The Prevalence and Utility of Vascular Surgery Training Programs' and Vascular Societies’ Social Media Presence

“…This includes posting frequently, following related accounts and re-posting content, and using hashtags. 17,21,37 There are also social media marketing strategies of identifying a target audience, staying active, and having discussions with other accounts on relevant topics. 38 Programs already using hashtags should continue utilization to maintain their existing audience.…”

Social Media Use Among Foot and Ankle Orthopedic Surgeons

“…Social media has become a leading forum for discourse, connecting to 2 billion Facebook users, 500 million Twitter users, 2 billion daily YouTube viewers, and 600 million Instagram accounts. 3,7,10,22 Users rely on the platforms to disseminate health care information and as source of referrals, 15,20,27 and in response, physicians have amplified their online presence in this rapidly changing medium. 16 Recent studies show that 80% of patients use the Internet for health care questions and 90% of physicians use a social media platform.…”