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How Social Media Is Changing the Practice of Regional Anesthesiology

  • Regional Anesthesia (CJL McCartney, Section Editor)
  • Published:
Current Anesthesiology Reports Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose of review

This review summarizes the current applications of social media in regional anesthesiology, describes ways that specific platforms may promote growth, and briefly discusses limitations and future directions.

Recent findings

Although Facebook users outnumber Twitter users, the latter has been better studied in regional anesthesiology and may have the advantages of speed and expansion of reach. Highly tweeted publications are more likely to be cited in the medical literature, and twitter-enhanced journal clubs facilitate communication regarding important articles with international colleagues. In both the USA and internationally, Twitter has been shown to enhance the anesthesiology conference experience, changing communication amongst attendees and non-attendees. YouTube and podcasts are quickly finding a niche in regional anesthesiology for just-in-time training and continuing professional development.

Summary

Social media use is rapidly growing in regional anesthesiology, and benefits include global interaction and knowledge translation within the specialty and with the general public.

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Anesthesiology, Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Eric S. Schwenk

  2. Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, 3801 Miranda Avenue (112A), Palo Alto, CA, 94304, USA

    Larry F. Chu & Edward R. Mariano

  3. Anesthesiology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA

    Rajnish K. Gupta

  4. Anesthesiology and Perioperative Care Service and Inpatient Surgical Services, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA, USA

    Edward R. Mariano

Authors
  1. Eric S. Schwenk
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  2. Larry F. Chu
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  3. Rajnish K. Gupta
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  4. Edward R. Mariano
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Edward R. Mariano.

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Conflict of Interest

Eric S. Schwenk declares that he has no conflict of interest. Larry F. Chu declares that he has no conflict of interest. Rajnish K. Gupta declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Edward R. Mariano has received unrestricted funding for educational programs paid to his institution from Halyard Health (Alpharetta, GA) and B. Braun (Bethlehem, PA). These companies had absolutely no input into any aspect of manuscript preparation.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

Additional information

This article is part of the Topical Collection on Regional Anesthesia

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Schwenk, E.S., Chu, L.F., Gupta, R.K. et al. How Social Media Is Changing the Practice of Regional Anesthesiology. Curr Anesthesiol Rep 7, 238–245 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40140-017-0213-x

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