Sports Medicine Surgeons Use Social Media to Network With Other Surgeons and Increase Patient Engagement: A Scoping Review.

Abstract

To identify how social media is used by sports medicine surgeons and how this is perceived by patients. In accordance with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines, the PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases were searched in April 2024 for studies published after 2014. Studies were included if they met the following criteria: They evaluated sports medicine fellowship-trained orthopaedic surgeons' social media use or patient preferences regarding social media use among these surgeons, reported the purpose of social media use, and were written in English. Studies that were not written in English, did not specifically evaluate sports medicine surgeons, or evaluated a singular procedure were excluded. The initial search identified 328 studies, 6 of which were included in this scoping review, each of which was a cross-sectional study. Of these studies, 4 (67%) evaluated how sports medicine surgeons use social media and 2 (33%) evaluated patient experiences of consuming surgeons' social media content. Twitter was the most popular social media site among sports medicine orthopaedic surgeons with online social media presence scores in the top 10%. Academic sports medicine surgeons were more likely than nonacademic surgeons to be active on social media. Increased Twitter use was correlated with increased research productivity and citation impact. Patients were interested in educational videos and live question-and-answer sessions from their sports medicine surgeons, irrespective of platform used. Twitter and YouTube are popular platforms among sports medicine surgeons, particularly for professional networking and patient education. However, Instagram has emerged as the leading platform in terms of user engagement, making it an effective tool for fostering patient interaction and promoting clinical practice. These findings suggest that surgeons should prioritize Instagram alongside other platforms to effectively enhance their professional presence. Level III, systematic review of Level III studies.