Twitter and surgery: how social media can impact surgical education

INTRODUCTION: Social media is now a ubiquitous form of communication. It has allowed individuals to connect and share ideas across the country and across the globe. Twitter allows user to share thoughts in 280-character “tweets,” while also connecting these messages to community posts with hashtags. While the surgical community utilizes many social media platforms; the use of Twitter has been particularly unique. The aim of this review was to focus on several areas of Twitter utilization in surgery including: surgical education, residency training, and utilization by surgical societies. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: The following databases were searched for studies meeting our inclusion criteria: MEDLINE, Embase, Cochraine library, ScieLO, LILACS. EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS: Selected papers discussed the use of Twitter for surgical education, social media use by residency programs, and social media use by surgical societies. CONCLUSIONS: Twitter has allowed for growth of the surgical community both locally and nationally. It allows for promotion and connectivity for surgical departments and individual surgeons. Furthermore, it is an important communication tool for surgical societies to reach members and disseminate guidelines and recommendations.