Fig. 1
Flow diagram of search and inclusion process
Fig. 2
Number of publications on social media knowledge translation and education for physicians and medical trainees. NB The 2018 data is extrapolated from projected data since our search included only the first 3 months of 2018. To generate the year-end projection, the number of papers published in the first 3 months was multipled by four to yield the anticipated total number of papers by year’s end
Table 1
Medical specialties or groups of specialties that were included in more than ten publications
|
Specialty or grouping |
# of Articles |
|---|---|
|
Surgery (including specialties and subspecialties) Urology (n = 24) Plastics/Burns/Aesthetics (n = 18) Orthopaedics (n = 16) Neurosurgery (n = 10) |
138 |
|
Medicine (including hospitalist, internal medicine) and subspecialties Nephrology (n = 10) |
85 |
|
Emergency medicine (including paediatric emergency medicine (n = 3)) |
59 |
|
Radiology (including subspecialties) |
24 |
|
Dermatology |
18 |
|
Primary care (including family medicine, general practice, palliative care, travel medicine) |
18 |
|
Anaesthesia (including pain medicine, and critical care anaesthesia) |
16 |
|
Pathology (including subspecialties) |
13 |
|
Psychiatry |
10 |
Table 2
Types of social media represented
|
Platform (Number of Articles) |
|---|
|
Open social media platforms (# of articles) |
|
Twitter (157) |
|
Facebook (103) |
|
Wiki (57) |
|
LinkedIn (25) |
|
Google+ (15) |
|
Instagram (10) |
|
Flickr (9) |
|
ResearchGate (3) |
|
Reddit (3) |
|
mySpace (2) |
|
Pinterest (2) |
|
Snapchat (1) |
|
Multimedia with ability to interact (# of articles) (e.g., messaging, commenting, correspondence) |
|
Blogs (104) |
|
Podcasts (72) |
|
Video Archival (68) (e.g., YouTube, Vimeo, etc.) |
|
RSS Feeds (4) |
|
iTunesU (1) |
|
Scribd (1) |
|
Direct peer-to-peer contact (# of articles) |
|
WhatsApp (19) |
|
Video Chat (14) |
|
WeChat (7) |
|
Texting (2) |
|
Other closed platforms (# of articles) |
|
Specific closed networks (24) (e.g., Doximity, Moodle, Slack) |
|
Google docs/Collaborative document sharing (7) |
|
Social Bookmarking (7) |
|
Digital Textbook (4) |
|
SlideShare (2) |
Table 3
Social media strategies for knowledge translation and education
|
Push strategies with occasional social media engagement opportunities |
Engagement strategies with a focus on fostering interaction between individuals |
Blended strategies using ‘push’ and engagement |
|---|---|---|
|
– Blog for dissemmination, communication, and education – Distributing Visual Media (e.g. Visual Abstract, Infographics, Instagram accounts) – Podcasts – Webcasting (e.g. YouTube Channel) – Dedicated Organizational Social Media Accounts (e.g., a journal’s Twitter account, a residency program’s instagram account) |
Social media discussions – Online Case-based or – Problem-based learning (connectivist Massive Open Online Course) – Twitter Journal Clubs & other Tweet Chats – Facebook groups/pages – WhatsApp-based teaching/discussions – Mobile quizzing (e.g. board exam review, image review) – Wiki-based collaborations – Cultivating online/virtual Communities of Practice – Hashtag creation (e.g. #FOAMed, #WomenInMedicine, #PlasticSurgery) |
– Live-tweeting at conferences – Virtual networking and mentorship – Formal publications based on social media discussions (e.g. Online journal club proceedings) |
Table 4
Types of scholarship in the social media for knowledge translation and education literature
|
Type of scholarship (n) |
Explanation of scholarship type |
|---|---|
|
Descriptive study (n = 242) |
Description of a population and their habits. In our database, usually describing the usage patterns of technology (e.g. how many physicians various social media platforms) |
|
Conceptual piece (n = 192) |
Narrative review, opinion, editorial, commentary, or letter to the editor advancing theory |
|
Innovation report (n = 122) |
Description of one specific intervention at the local level or initial trial, richly described with satisfaction or reaction data |
|
Justification study (n = 45) |
Compares one educational intervention with another to assess whether the intervention works compared with a known standard |
|
Online journal club proceedings (n = 19) |
Online discussions were facilitated via social media, and proceedings were reported in a formal peer reviewed publication |
|
Clarification study (n = 5) |
Either testing theory-based predictions (e.g. experimental quantitative approaches) or generating new theory (e.g. mixed or qualitative approaches) and building upon prior research |
|
Critical appraisal of online materials (n = 5) |
Systematically rating the quality of websites, blogs, podcasts or other social media materials |
|
Systematic or other integrative reviews (n = 3) |
This category includes systematic reviews, meta-analyses, scoping reviews, and other structured integrative work, but excludes non-structured review (e.g. narrative reviews or commentaries). Scientific review summarizing the results of available evidence on a topic |
Table 5
An overview of the methods used study social media knowledge translation and education
|
Types of Methods Used |
Number of Publications |
|---|---|
|
Surveys (quantitative—number-based, questions Likert scales, other scales) |
180 |
|
Usage analytics (Web or Social Media Platform analytics—Pageviews, Number of Tweets, etc.) |
79 |
|
Objective observations/Tests |
47 |
|
Surveys (qualitative—open ended questions) |
40 |
|
Substantive written texts (narratives, reflections, blog posts) |
34 |
|
Interviews |
20 |
|
Micro-text analysis (e.g. Tweet analysis) |
18 |
|
Anecdotes and exemplar case studies |
16 |
|
Focus Groups |
10 |
|
Social media profile review |
9 |
|
Critical appraisal of online content |
8 |
|
Ethnographic approaches (e.g. Observations with field notes, online observation) |
4 |
|
Delphi study |
3 |
|
N/A (i.e. was a commentary or narrative review) |
192 |
The total in this table is greater than the total number of publications from which we extracted since some studies included multiple types of methods (e.g., studies might incorporate both quantitative and qualitative survey elements)
Table 6
Major themes in the social media for knowledge translation and education literature
|
Themes (# of articles) |
Exemplar article |
|---|---|
|
Practice Improvement (n = 330) |
Alam F, et al. E‑learning optimization: The relative and combined effects of mental practice and modeling on enhanced podcast-based learning—a randomized controlled trial. Adv Health Sci Educ. 2016;21:789–802 [38] |
|
Description of technology (n = 327) |
Sugawara Y, et al. Medical Institutions and Twitter: A Novel Tool for Public Communication in Japan. JMIR Public Health Surv. 2016;2(1) [39] |
|
Community of practice (n = 61) |
Stewart S, Abidi S. Applying Social Network Analysis to Understand the Knowledge Sharing Behaviour of Practitioners in a Clinical Online Discussion Forum. JMIR. 2012;14(6) [40] |
|
Critical appraisal of the online content (n = 53) |
Wolbrink T, et al. The Top Ten Websites in Critical Care Medicine Education Today. J Int Care Med. 2018;34:3–16 [41] |
|
Professionalism addressed in addition to other themes (n = 48) |
Chretien K, et al. Physicians on twitter. JAMA. 2011;305:566–8 [42] |
|
Informing evidence-based practice (n = 43) |
Joshi N, et al. Social Media Responses to the Annals of Emergency Medicine Residents Perspective Article on Multiple Mini-Interviews. Ann Emerg Med. 2014;64:320–5 [43] |
|
Usage patterns & demographics (n = 21) |
Chan TM, et al. Creating, curating, and sharing online faculty development resources: the medical education in cases series experience. Acad Med. 2015;90:785–9 [44] |
Fig. 3
Diffusion of innovation through scholarship
