Radiology and social media: are private practice radiology groups more social than academic radiology departments?

PURPOSE This study assesses the prevalence of use of the most commonly used social media sites among private radiology groups (PRGs) and academic radiology departments (ARDs). METHODS The 50 largest PRGs and the 50 ARDs with the highest level of funding from the National Institutes of Health were assessed for presence of a radiology-specific social media account on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Measures of organizational activity and end-user activity were collected, including the number of posts and followers, as appropriate; between-group comparisons were performed. RESULTS PRGs adopted Facebook 12 months earlier (P = .02) and Twitter 18 months earlier (P = .02) than did ARDs. A total of 76% of PRGs maintained ≥1 account on the social media sites included in the study, compared with 28% of ARDs (P < .0001). The prevalence of having an account on the social media sites for PRGs was: Facebook, 66%; LinkedIn, 56%; Twitter, 42%; YouTube, 20%; Pinterest, 4%; and Instagram, 2%. The prevalence of radiology-specific social media accounts for ARDs was: Facebook, 18%; LinkedIn, 0%; Twitter, 24%; YouTube, 6%; Pinterest, 0%; and Instagram, 0%. There was no significant difference between ARDs and PRGs in measures of end-user or organizational activity on Facebook or Twitter. CONCLUSIONS Use of social media in health care is emerging as mainstream, with PRGs being early adopters of Facebook and Twitter in comparison with ARDs. Competitive environments and institutional policies may be strong factors that influence how social media is used by radiologists at the group and department levels.

[1]  David A Hanauer,et al.  Public awareness, perception, and use of online physician rating sites. , 2014, JAMA.

[2]  C Matthew Hawkins,et al.  Social media in radiology: early trends in Twitter microblogging at radiology's largest international meeting. , 2014, Journal of the American College of Radiology : JACR.

[3]  David E. Alexander,et al.  Social Media in Disaster Risk Reduction and Crisis Management , 2013, Science and Engineering Ethics.

[4]  R. Merchant,et al.  Integrating social media into emergency-preparedness efforts. , 2011, The New England journal of medicine.

[5]  I. Murphy Social Media Matters for Radiologists , 2013 .

[6]  J. Cain,et al.  Pharmacists on Facebook: online social networking and the profession. , 2010, Journal of the American Pharmacists Association : JAPhA.

[7]  Stuart R Lipsitz,et al.  Impact of hospital market competition on endovascular aneurysm repair adoption and outcomes. , 2011, Journal of vascular surgery.

[8]  Stacey L Gulick Social media: a brave new world for doctors. , 2011, Journal of the American College of Radiology : JACR.

[9]  N. Sood,et al.  Association between availability of health service prices and payments for these services. , 2014, JAMA.

[10]  J. Brownstein,et al.  Influenza A (H7N9) and the importance of digital epidemiology. , 2013, The New England journal of medicine.

[11]  R. Mcdermott,et al.  Who's the doctor? Patients' perceptions of the role of the breast radiologist: a lesson for all radiologists. , 2012, The British journal of radiology.

[12]  S. Lane,et al.  Should social media be used to communicate with patients? , 2010, MCN. The American journal of maternal child nursing.

[13]  A. Darzi,et al.  Harnessing the cloud of patient experience: using social media to detect poor quality healthcare , 2013, BMJ quality & safety.

[14]  Lisette Schoonhoven,et al.  Social Media and Rating Sites as Tools to Understanding Quality of Care: A Scoping Review , 2014, Journal of medical Internet research.

[15]  C. Hawn Take two aspirin and tweet me in the morning: how Twitter, Facebook, and other social media are reshaping health care. , 2009, Health affairs.

[16]  Amy L Hader,et al.  Patient privacy and social media. , 2010, AANA journal.

[17]  Jodi G. Daniel,et al.  A national action plan to support consumer engagement via e-health. , 2013, Health affairs.

[18]  Sanjeev Arora,et al.  The shocking cost of turnover in health care. , 2010, Health care management review.

[19]  M. Chisolm,et al.  Social media and physicians' online identity crisis. , 2013, JAMA.

[20]  Jennifer L. Fisher,et al.  Who gives a tweet: assessing patients' interest in the use of social media for health care. , 2012, Worldviews on evidence-based nursing.

[21]  U. Gattiker Social Media Audit: Measure for Impact , 2012 .