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Are online surgical discussion boards a safe and useful venue for surgeons to ask for advice? A review of the International Hernia Collaboration Facebook Group

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Abstract

Background

Social media is a growing medium for disseminating information among surgeons. The International Hernia Collaboration Facebook Group (IHC) is a widely utilized social media platform to share ideas and advice on managing patients with hernia-related diseases. Our objective was to assess the safety and utility of advice provided.

Methods

Overall, 60 consecutive de-identified clinical threads were extracted from the IHC in reverse chronological order. A group of three hernia specialists evaluated all threads for unsafe posts, unhelpful comments, and if an established evidence-based management strategy was provided. Positive and negative controls for safe and unsafe answers were included in seven threads and reviewers were blinded to their presence. Reviewers were free to access all online and professional resources (except the IHC).

Results

There were 598 unique responses (median 10, 1–26 responses per thread) to the 60 clinical threads/scenarios. The review team correctly identified all seven positive and negative controls. Most responses were safe (96.6%) but some were unhelpful (28.4%). For sixteen threads, the reviewers believed there was an established evidence-based answer; however, only six were provided. In addition, 14 responses were considered unsafe, but only four were corrected.

Conclusions

The vast majority of responses were considered helpful; however, evidence-based management is typically not provided and unsafe recommendations often go uncontested. While the IHC allows wide dissemination of hernia-related surgical advice/discussions, surgeons should be cautious when using the IHC for clinical advice. Mechanisms to provide evidence-based management strategies and to identify unsafe advice are needed to improve quality within online forums and to prevent patient harm.

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Funding

There was no funding received to conduct this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, McGovern Medical School at University of Texas Health, 5656 Kelley Street, Houston, TX, 77026, USA

    Karla Bernardi, Alexis N. Milton, Shinil K. Shah, Puja Shah, Nicole B. Lyons, Alexander C. Martin, Julie L. Holihan, Deepa V. Cherla, Tien C. Ko & Mike K. Liang

  2. Department of Surgery, New Hanover Regional Medical Center, Wilmington, NC, USA

    William Hope

  3. Department of Surgery, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA

    John Scott Roth

  4. Department of Surgery, University of Kansas School of Medicine, Salina, KS, USA

    Tyler G. Hughes

Authors
  1. Karla Bernardi
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  2. Alexis N. Milton
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  3. William Hope
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  4. John Scott Roth
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  5. Shinil K. Shah
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  6. Puja Shah
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  7. Nicole B. Lyons
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  8. Alexander C. Martin
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  9. Julie L. Holihan
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  10. Deepa V. Cherla
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  11. Tien C. Ko
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  12. Tyler G. Hughes
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  13. Mike K. Liang
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Consortia

Social Media in Surgery and Medicine Study Group

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Karla Bernardi.

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Disclosures

Drs. Hope and Roth received associated research funding from BD Inc. in the last 36 months, but this funding was not used to complete this study. Dr. Bernardi, Ms. Milton, Dr. Shah, Ms. Shah, Ms. Lyons, Dr. Martin, Dr. Holihan, Dr. Cherla, Dr. Ko, Dr. Hughes, and Dr. Liang have no conflict of interest or financial ties to disclose.

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Bernardi, K., Milton, A.N., Hope, W. et al. Are online surgical discussion boards a safe and useful venue for surgeons to ask for advice? A review of the International Hernia Collaboration Facebook Group. Surg Endosc 34, 1285–1289 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00464-019-06895-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00464-019-06895-8

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