#Urology Is Trending in Social Media

Social media refers to Web-based applications through which users create and exchange user-generated content. Most social media networks are available free of charge to everyone who creates an account. Content is generated and shared in real time with users interacting through computers and mobile devices. These qualities make social media of unique utility to medicine: rapid exchange of ideas across the globe in one minute can impact patient care the next.

Academic medicine is showing increased adoption of social media. Major medical journals (eg, British Medical Journal, The Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, and the Journal of the American Medical Association) all have a presence on Facebook and Twitter. The peer-reviewed biographic database Scopus prominently displays social media impact in the sidebar of every article and abstract page.¹ Urologists in particular have been quick to adopt social media for academic purposes. Matta and colleagues² reported the dramatic increase in Twitter use at the American Urological Association (AUA) and Canadian Urological Association annual meetings. A combined 29 urologists generated 159 tweets at the 2012 meetings, compared with 268 urologists generating 2765 tweets in 2013. Several urology journals such as European Urology and the BJU International have embraced social media by creating Associate Editor roles for social media and digital media, respectively, and have actively encouraged the growth of social media among their readership. Two recent publications underscore the increasing use of social media in urology.

Use of Social Media in Urology: Data From the American Urological Association

Loeb S, Bayne CE, Frey C, et al. BJU Int. 2014113993–998.

To better understand the utilization of social media by its members, the AUA emailed a 34-question survey to a random sample of 2000 attending urologists and 2047 resident/fellow members in December 2012. Of the 382 (9.4%) surveys that were completed, 245 (64%) were attending urologists. The majority of members (74%) reported having at least one social media account. Level of training (86% residents/fellows vs 66% for attending physicians) and age (83% of those under 40 years vs 56% over 40 years) were associated with the likelihood of having a social media account.

The most commonly used social media accounts were Facebook (93%), LinkedIn (46%), and Twitter (36%). Members used social media for personal reasons 70% of the time. Only 16% used some social media accounts for personal use and others for business, and even fewer used the same accounts for personal and business (8%) or just business alone (4%).

Members reported privacy on social media as a strong priority. Most residents (89%) and attending physicians (52%) have changed their default privacy settings, most commonly to prevent the public and patients from accessing postings and photos. However, the minority of respondents had actually been contacted by a patient on social media (39% of attending physicians vs 10% of residents/fellows).

To complement the AUA survey as it related to present day social medial trends, the authors used the Symplur Web site (Symplur LLC; www.symplur.com) to examine Twitter usage during the 2013 AUA annual meeting. Specifically, Symplur analyzed the amount of Twitter traffic using the indexing hashtag #AUA13. During the 30 days before and after the meeting, a total of 644 unique contributors generated 5058 Tweets for a total of 9,163,185 impressions (sum of all tweets by participants multiplied by number of followers per participant). For comparison, the authors also examined Symplur analytics using the #EAU13 hashtag for the European Association of Urology (EAU) annual meeting held approximately 2 months earlier in March 2013. During the 60-day period around that meeting, there were a total of 1819 tweets from 246 contributors for 1,686,351 impressions.

Limitations of this study include the low response rate to the survey and the use of Symplur analytics, which may underestimate the amount of Twitter participation in meetings because it only captures active use with the designated hashtag. Nevertheless, this study still represents the largest collection of surveyed data on social media use among urologists to date. The examination of Twitter traffic using the meeting hashtags #AUA13 and #EAU13 confirm the increasing utilization of social media among urologists and will provide a useful benchmark for future research on the topic.

International Urology Journal Club via Twitter: 12-Month Experience

Thangasamy IA, Leveridge M, Davies BJ, et al. Eur Urol. 201466112–117.

In this novel publication, the authors describe the initial experience with an international urology journal club performed monthly on Twitter. The discussion occurs via tweets of 140 or fewer characters and is indexed using the hashtag #urojc. Each month, the journal club features an article from a major peer-reviewed journal. Anyone with an Internet connection can read the #urojc discussion, but participation requires a free Twitter account.

During the first 12 months of the international urology journal club, 189 unique participants from 19 countries and 6 continents contributed to the discussion. The mean number of new participants each month was 14. Overall, participants contributed a mean of 195 tweets generating a mean 130,832 impressions each month.

The best tweet each month was awarded a prize. The monthly #urojc articles heavily favored urologic oncology (seven prostate cancer articles, two bladder cancer articles, and one renal cancer article). Additionally, 1 month featured a urolithiasis article, and another month featured an article on live case demonstrations. Each month, article authors and/or key thought leaders joined the #urojc chat.

The international urology journal club is gaining and sustaining active participation in a global capacity not possible in an offline setting. At the time of writing, the international urology journal club’s Twitter account (@iurojc) has over 1600 followers. Moreover, February’s #urojc discussion on complications after primary tumor treatment of prostate cancer was recently summarized in Lancet Oncology.³ Indeed, the international urology journal club has pioneered a new approach to journal clubs that is now being replicated in other specialties.

In summary, social media provides a new way for urologists to engage in real-time discussion and disseminate knowledge. Social media use has been exponentially increasing at urological meetings. Twitter in particular is a unique platform for engagement, and the international urology journal club has successfully met every month with participation from attending and trainee urologists around the globe.