Social Media and Oncology: The Time Is Now

Social media has changed the way we interact, and this is as true in medicine as it is in the larger society. Social media has allowed users to connect well beyond physical boundaries, drawn by geography, institution, and community. It has also facilitated diversity in interactions, allowing clinicians to engage with people living with cancer, advocates, and colleagues that they may have not known otherwise.

Oncologists have been a part of this evolution, albeit not in any organized way. Early adopters lent their voice and experience to social media conversations, like #bcsm, the first Twitter community to gather around a specific tumor type (breast cancer) and to host regularly scheduled tweet chats. Others found their way toward collaborations borne on the very social media platforms in which they found themselves, spurred on by the lack of guidance on how to use social media professionally. This very granular beginning ultimately gave rise to the Collaborative for Outcomes in Social Media in Oncology (COSMO) in 2015, an informal association of people within and outside of oncology, all of whom recognized the incredible potential to positively affect patient education, public health, and physician education.

Thus began a concerted effort to collaborate on publications that documented the value in using cancer-specific hashtags for online communication about cancer care, and editorials discussing the benefits and challenges to using social media for cancer communication and professional education and development.^1-5 The founding members of COSMO have even partnered with patients to demonstrate how social media can identify unique perspectives and challenges faced by those undergoing treatment for cancer.^6,7

Our goals have always been to demonstrate the benefits and value of an active physician social media presence for patient education and collaboration, professional education, and career advancement. In addition, we have sought to mentor and encourage other oncology professionals to actively participate in social media. In so doing, we have shown that we can move well beyond imperfect metrics of impact and reach such as likes and impressions and translate them to more meaningful and impactful content.

In 2018, we had the opportunity to meet in person at the ASCO annual meeting and for some of us, it was the first time meeting face-to-face (Fig 1). We discussed how to further our goals to engage more physicians and patients, beyond contributing to the literature. We felt that the logical next step would be to host an in-person conference, featuring both physician and patient perspectives. Planning the conference naturally led to enlarging the core founding circle, to ensure multiple perspectives were represented. Although the COVID-19 pandemic altered our plans, it did not completely derail them. With support from the National Cancer Institute (1R13CA239613-01A1), the Rhode Island Department of Health, Stanford Cancer Institute, the Lifespan Cancer Institute, and the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, we held our inaugural 2-day virtual conference in April 2021. More than 200 individuals participated in this inaugural virtual event and all who joined have by default become COSMO members. On social media, it garnered more than 2,400 tweets by 336 unique users, amassing more than 21.5 million impressions over the course of the 2-day meeting.

FIG 1.

The first in-person gathering of the founding members of COSMO at the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Sessions at this meeting explored important themes covering professional use of social media; tackling misinformation in the online space; the rise of the e-patient; and social media, equity, diversity, and the importance of safe online spaces. The papers in this issue of JCO Oncology Practice expand on the discussions held over those 2 days, and are written by rising oncologists in training, junior faculty, and patients, representing a diverse and international effort and collaboration. The hope is that by further expanding these themes, and the still emerging literature that exists, we can elevate the use and the study of social media as an important aspect of the modern practice of oncology, representing innovative ways of bidirectional communication and opportunities for true stakeholder engagement in pursuit of academic research.

What is next for COSMO? A large part of the success of this collaboration has been our open-access attitude that has been present from the start. Anyone and everyone with an interest in participating is welcome. Our collaborations are facilitated by social media, and ideas are crowdsourced within the group. Our strength comes from the diverse perspectives and experiences of the collaborative. If you are interested, please join us—there is no shortage of ideas and topics to research and explore.

AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS

Conception and design: All authors

Administrative support: All authors

Collection and assembly of data: All authors

Data analysis and interpretation: All authors

Manuscript writing: All authors

Final approval of manuscript: All authors

Accountable for all aspects of the work: All authors

AUTHORS' DISCLOSURES OF POTENTIAL CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

Social Media and Oncology: The Time Is Now

The following represents disclosure information provided by authors of this manuscript. All relationships are considered compensated unless otherwise noted. Relationships are self-held unless noted. I = Immediate Family Member, Inst = My Institution. Relationships may not relate to the subject matter of this manuscript. For more information about ASCO's conflict of interest policy, please refer to www.asco.org/rwc or ascopubs.org/op/authors/author-center.

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