Impact of Social Media and Virtual Learning on Cardiology During the COVID-19 Pandemic Era and Beyond

Abstract

Over the past decade, advances in digital trends and technology have greatly impacted the medical field with rapid delivery of and access to information. The field of cardiovascular medicine in particular has seen major technological advances and is well versed in the use of digital platforms and social media. In these unprecedented times of the COVID-19 pandemic, social media and other digital platforms are essential tools for communication, education, and delivery of information. In this review, we discuss the ways virtual learning and social media are changing medical education and research.

Keywords: COVID-19; cardiology virtual learning; social media.

Figure 1.

Twitter pages of cardiology and other subspecialty organizations with the number of followers displayed (September 17, 2020).

Figure 2.

Social media platforms by active monthly users (April 2020).

Figure 3.

Results of an online survey with 100 respondents showing preferred social media platforms used for education.

Figure 4.

Examples of tweets sharing cardiology education content with hashtags #ACCfit, #FITGurvivalGuide, #EchoBoardPrep. Printed with permission from Nadeen Faza, MD, and Ankasha Thakkar, MD.

Figure 5.

Examples of Twitter COVID-19 “tweetorials.” Printed with permission from Bryan Broderick, MD, and Vi Dinh, MD, pocus101.com.

Figure 6.

Examples of journal articles posted by @JACCJournals and @ESC_Journals. Printed with permission.