Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Jul 28;20(1):201.
doi: 10.1186/s12874-020-01072-1.

The influence of social media on recruitment to surgical trials

Carly Nichola Bisset  1 , Ben Carter  2 , Jennifer Law  3 , Jonathan Hewitt  4 , Kat Parmar  5 , Susan Joan Moug  6 ; ELF Study Group Collaborative Authorship
Collaborators, Affiliations

The influence of social media on recruitment to surgical trials

Carly Nichola Bisset et al. BMC Med Res Methodol. .

Abstract

Background: Social media has changed the way surgeons communicate worldwide, particularly in dissemination of trial results. However, it is unclear if social media could be used in recruitment to surgical trials. This study aimed to investigate the influence of Twitter in promoting surgical recruitment in The Emergency Laparotomy and Frailty (ELF) Study.

Methods: The ELF Study was a UK-based, prospective, observational cohort that aimed to assess the influence of frailty on 90-day mortality in older adults undergoing emergency surgery. A power calculation required 500 patients to be recruited to detect a 10% change in mortality associated with frailty. A 12-week recruitment period was selected, calculated from information submitted by participating hospitals and the numbers of emergency surgeries performed in adults aged > 65 years. A Twitter handle was designed (@ELFStudy) with eye-catching logos to encourage enrolment and inform the public and clinicians involved in the study. Twitter Analytics and Twitonomy (Digonomy Pty Ltd) were used to analyse user engagement in relation to patient recruitment.

Results: After 90 days of data collection, 49 sites from Scotland, England and Wales recruited 952 consecutive patients undergoing emergency laparotomy, with data logged into a database created on REDCap. Target recruitment (n = 500) was achieved by week 11. A total of 591 tweets were published by @ELFStudy since its conception, making 218,136 impressions at time of writing. The number of impressions (number of times users see a particular tweet) prior to March 20th 2017 (study commencement date) was 23,335 (343.2 per tweet), compared to the recruitment period with 114,314 impressions (256.3 per tweet), ending June 20th 2017. Each additional tweet was associated with an increase in recruitment of 1.66 (95%CI 1.36 to 1.97; p < 0.001).

Conclusion: The ELF Study over-recruited by nearly 100%, reaching over 200,000 people across the U.K. Branding enhanced tweet aesthetics and helped increase tweet engagement to stimulate discussion and healthy competition amongst clinicians to aid trial recruitment. Other studies may draw from the social media experiences of the ELF Study to optimise collaboration amongst researchers.

Trial registration: This study is registered online at www.clinicaltrials.gov (registration number NCT02952430 ) and has been approved by the National Health Service Research Ethics Committee.

Keywords: Recruitment; Social media; Surgical trials.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Comparison of Impressions and Engagements between Phase 1 (pre-trial) and Phase 2 (patient recruitment)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Cumulative Weekly Tweets & Patient Recruitment
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Comparison of Weekly Impressions and Engagements during Phase 2 (patient recruitment)
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
A Scatter plot of the Cumulative number of tweets with cumulative total recruitment (r2 = 0.94)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Statista. Number of social network users worldwide from 2010 to 2021. https://www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of-worldwide-social-ne... (accessed 21/1/20).
    1. Macdonald JJ, Bisset C, Coleman MG, Speake D, Brady RRW. Contemporary use of social media by consultant colorectal surgeons. Colorectal Dis. 2015;17(2):165–171. doi: 10.1111/codi.12780. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Pearson D, Bond MC, Kegg J, et al. Evaluation of social media use by emergency medicine residents and faculty. West J Emerg Med. 2015;16:715–720. doi: 10.5811/westjem.2015.7.26128. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Steele SR, Arshad S, Bush R, Dasani S, Cologne K, Bleier JIS, Raphaeli T, Kelz RR. Social media is a necessary component of surgical practice. Surgery. 2015;158(3):857–862. doi: 10.1016/j.surg.2015.06.002. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Wexner SD, Petrucci AM, Brady RR, Ennis-O’Connor M, Fitzgerald JE, Mayol J. Social media in colorectal surgery. Colorectal Dis. 2017;19(2):105–114. doi: 10.1111/codi.13572. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

Associated data

LinkOut - more resources