The journal is taking a step forward with social media channels with featuring key articles on the SRS social media as described below by Dr. Robert Cho, the Deputy Editor of Social Media with the journal’s expansion in the digital world.

John E Lonstein

Editor-in-Chief

Spine Deformity

figure a

It is my pleasure to announce the creation of the social media arm of Spine Deformity. As we enter into an increasingly digitized world, the way we consume media has changed over time. In other industries, we have seen this change happening frequently, with examples such as cord cutting for cable/satellite TV and the use of streaming instead of physical media for music. We have seen these same trends in medicine as well. Our trainees (and an increasing number of attendings) rarely read physical textbooks anymore, as they use resources on the internet to obtain information for education for patient care. Online video has been instrumental in teaching surgical technique to a larger audience than the traditional master-apprentice model. Journal articles are often consumed via PDF on an iPad or laptop instead of on paper. These changes have increased our efficiency in learning how to best perform surgery and take care of our patient population.

Social media has largely replaced traditional newspapers for information on current events. In our effort to stay current with these trends in media consumption, we too must account for how surgeons obtain information now. We are beginning an effort to create a presence on social media to highlight the most important points from key articles from each issue. Our hope is to pique the interest of our audience to then come back to read these articles online or in print. We will work in concert with the Scoliosis Research Society Communications Council to also feature authors from these key articles to discuss their findings over interview in podcast and video format. We also look forward to featuring video for novel techniques that can be an adjunct to the articles featured in each issue.

You will be able to find our content on the Scoliosis Research Society social media channels each month on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

If the through of the use of social media for the Spine Deformity journal makes you wary, don't fret: we do not plan on replacing our journal content with social media content. Anything that occurs on social media will be content that is based on what is online and in print. You will be free to choose—however you decide to read the journal, although I am confident that you will find that it will help to provide an additional layer of information and education for our published content.

I look forward to serving as your Deputy Editor for Social Media and I am more than willing to listen to any suggestions you have as we begin this effort. I am excited for the future of Spine Deformity as we embark on this effort into the digital realm.

Robert (Bob) H. Cho, MD, FAAOS, FAOA.

Spine Deformity Deputy Editor for Social Media.