Strategy of robotic surgeons to exert public influence through Twitter

A healthcare social media research article published in International Journal of Medical Robotics and Computer Assisted Surgery, February 23, 2016

Title
Strategy of robotic surgeons to exert public influence through Twitter
Authors (alpha)
Axel Haferkamp, David Schilling, Georg Bartsch, Hendrik Borgmann, Igor Tsaur, Jan Woelm, Karen Nelson, Kilian Gust, Michael Reiter, Rene Mager, Roman Blaheta
Published
February 23, 2016
Journal
International Journal of Medical Robotics and Computer Assisted Surgery
DOI
10.1002/rcs.1739
Pubmed
26914176
Altmetric
A healthcare social media research article published in International Journal of Medical Robotics and Computer Assisted Surgery, February 23, 2016

Abstract

Twitter is gaining growing popularity as a communication platform and potential tool to influence the public in medical matters. The aim here is to examine whether and how robotic surgeons use Twitter more influentially than other urologists. Robotic surgeons and other urologists that tweeted at the European urology congress were compared by assessing Twitter Follower/Following Ratio, Retweet Rank and Percentile and their Twitter strategies. Robotic surgeons had a significantly higher Twitter Follower/Following Ratio (2.1, 1.4-2.4) and Retweet Rank percentile (92.1%, 90.5-93%) than other urologists (1.2, 0.8-2.1 and 88.9%, 87.3-91.7%, respectively). Robotic surgeons used original tweet content and links more often than other urologists (69.4% vs 53.8%, and 19.8% vs 12.5%, respectively). Robotic surgeons had a higher public influence on Twitter than other urologists and posted original tweets and links in tweets and profiles more frequently. This strategy might optimize Twitter use by healthcare professionals in the future. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Altmetric

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