Novel survey disseminated through Twitter supports its utility for networking, disseminating research, advocacy, clinical practice and other professional goals

Authors

  • Hendrik Borgmann University Hospital Frankfurt
  • Sasha DeWitt Department of Urology and Population Health, New York University and Manhattan Veterans Affairs Medical Center, NY, USA
  • Igor Tsaur Department of Urology, University Hospital Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
  • Axel Haferkamp Department of Urology, University Hospital Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
  • Stacy Loeb Department of Urology and Population Health, New York University and Manhattan Veterans Affairs Medical Center, NY, USA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5489/cuaj.3014

Keywords:

social network, social media, some, twitter, urology, tweet

Abstract

Introduction: Twitter use has grown exponentially within the urological community. We aimed to determine the perceptions of the impact of Twitter on users’ clinical practice, research, and other professional activities.

Methods: We performed an 11-item online survey of Twitter contributors during two major urological meetings: the European Association of Urology (EAU) and the American Urological Association (AUA) annual meetings. During the EAU 2014 meeting, we distributed the survey via the meeting official Twitter feed. During the AUA 2014 meeting, we applied a new method by directly sending the survey to Twitter contributors. We performed a subset analysis for assessing the perceived impact of Twitter on the clinical practice of physicians.

Results: Among 312 total respondents, the greatest perceived benefits of Twitter among users were for networking (97%) and disseminating information (96%), followed by research (75%), advocacy (74%) and career development (62%). In total, 65% of Twitter users have dealt with guidelines on online medical professionalism and 71% of physician users found that Twitter had an impact on their clinical practice, and 33% had made a clinical decision based on an online case discussion.

Conclusions: Our results suggest that Twitter users in the urological community perceive important benefits. These benefits extend to multiple professional domains, particularly networking, disseminating information, remote conference participation, research, and advocacy. This is the first study that has been disseminated to targeted individuals from the urological community directly through tweets, providing a proof of principle for this research method.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Downloads

Published

2015-10-13

How to Cite

Borgmann, H., DeWitt, S., Tsaur, I., Haferkamp, A., & Loeb, S. (2015). Novel survey disseminated through Twitter supports its utility for networking, disseminating research, advocacy, clinical practice and other professional goals. Canadian Urological Association Journal, 9(9-10), E713–7. https://doi.org/10.5489/cuaj.3014

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 9-10 (2015): CUAJ October

Section

Original Research

License

You, the Author(s), assign your copyright in and to the Article to the Canadian Urological Association. This means that you may not, without the prior written permission of the CUA:

  • Post the Article on any Web site
  • Translate or authorize a translation of the Article
  • Copy or otherwise reproduce the Article, in any format, beyond what is permitted under Canadian copyright law, or authorize others to do so
  • Copy or otherwise reproduce portions of the Article, including tables and figures, beyond what is permitted under Canadian copyright law, or authorize others to do so.

The CUA encourages use for non-commercial educational purposes and will not unreasonably deny any such permission request.

You retain your moral rights in and to the Article. This means that the CUA may not assert its copyright in such a way that would negatively reflect on your reputation or your right to be associated with the Article.

The CUA also requires you to warrant the following:

  • That you are the Author(s) and sole owner(s), that the Article is original and unpublished and that you have not previously assigned copyright or granted a licence to any other third party;
  • That all individuals who have made a substantive contribution to the article are acknowledged;
  • That the Article does not infringe any proprietary right of any third party and that you have received the permissions necessary to include the work of others in the Article; and
  • That the Article does not libel or violate the privacy rights of any third party.