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Original research
Hashtags in healthcare: understanding Twitter hashtags and online engagement at the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma 2016–2019 meetings
  1. Kristen Santarone1,
  2. Dessy Boneva1,2,
  3. Mark McKenney1,2,
  4. Adel Elkbuli1
  1. 1Department of Surgery, Division of Trauma and Surgical Critical Care, Kendall Regional Medical Center, Miami, Florida, USA
  2. 2Department of Surgery, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Adel Elkbuli; adel.elkbuli{at}hcahealthcare.com

Abstract

Background Social media amplifies the accessibility, reach and impact of medical education and conferences alike. The use of hashtags at medical conferences allows material to be discussed and improved on by the experts via online conversation on Twitter. We aim to investigate the utilization of hashtags at the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma (AAST) meetings from 2016 to 2019 and its potential role in knowledge dissemination and meeting participations.

Methods Symplur Signals software was used to analyze hashtags for the AAST meetings by year: #AAST2016, #AAST2017, #AAST2018, #AAST2019.

Results Number of tweets decreased significantly from 2016 to 2019 (4500 to 4400 to 3600 to 2600, respectively, p<0.05). Retweets also decreased significantly from 2016 to 2019 (3600 to 3300 to 2600 to 1900, respectively, p<0.05). Users decreased from 2016 to 2019 (1600 to 1400 to 937 to 743, respectively, p<0.05). Despite this decrease, impressions were 5.8 million in 2016, increasing to 8.6 million in 2017, then 9.6 million in 2018 and finally peaking in 2019 where impressions reached 10 million (p<0.05). The top influencer for 2016–2019 was the AAST Twitter account.

Conclusion Twitter #AAST 2016–2019 online engagement and interactions have declined during the last 4 years while impressions have grown steadily indicating potential widespread dissemination of trauma-related knowledge and evidence-based practices, and increased online utilization of conference material to trauma surgeons, residents and fellows, trauma scientists, other physicians and the lay public. #AAST online engagement and impressions did not have influence on meeting attendance rates.

  • education
  • medical
  • knowledge dissemination
  • social media
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

https://doi.org/10.1136/tsaco-2020-000496

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors Study conception and design: AE. Data collection, interpretation, and analysis: KS, DB, AE. Drafting of article: KS, AE. Critical revision of article: AE, MM, DB, KS. Approval of the final version: KS, AE, DB, MM.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Map disclaimer The depiction of boundaries on this map does not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of BMJ (or any member of its group) concerning the legal status of any country, territory, jurisdiction or area or of its authorities. This map is provided without any warranty of any kind, either express or implied.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent for publication Not required.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data availability statement Data are available in a public, open access repository. All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as supplementary information.