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. 2022 Jul;36(7):4674-4684.
doi: 10.1007/s00464-022-09150-9. Epub 2022 Mar 1.

Social media as a tool for surgical education: a qualitative systematic review

Diego L Lima  1 , Valentina Viscarret  2 , Juan Velasco  2 , Raquel Nogueira C L Lima  2 , Flavio Malcher  3
Affiliations

Social media as a tool for surgical education: a qualitative systematic review

Diego L Lima et al. Surg Endosc. 2022 Jul.

Abstract

Background: Social media use has exploded, attaining a significant influence within medicine. Previous studies have denoted the use of social media in various surgical specialties as a means to exchange professional ideas and improve the conference experience and at the same time, some have assessed its feasibility as a method of education. This systematic review aims to characterize the use of social media as a tool for general surgery education.

Methods: A systematic review of several databases from each database inception was conducted following the PRISMA guidelines. The JBI's critical appraisal tools were used to assess quality of the studies.

Results: A total of 861 articles were identified of which 222 were duplicates removed. The titles and abstracts from the remaining 639 abstracts were screened and 589 were excluded. The remaining 51 full articles were analyzed for eligibility, of which 24 met inclusion criteria and were included in the systematic review. These studies covered the general surgery specialty, of which 11 (n = 46%) focused on the laparoscopic surgical approach, 1 (n = 4%) on robotic-assisted surgical procedures, 1 (n = 4%) on both surgical approaches previously mentioned and 11 (n = 46%) on the general surgery specialty regardless of the surgical approach or technique.

Conclusions: Advantages that SM offers should be considered, and content creators and institutions should help collectively to make sure that the content being published is evidence and guideline-based so its use it is taken to the maximum benefit.

Keywords: Education; Laparoscopy; Minimally invasive surgery; Robotics; Social media; Social networking.

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Conflict of interest statement

Dr. Malcher discloses consulting fees from Intuitive, BD and Medtronic, outside the submitted work. Drs. Diego Lima, Valentina Viscarret, Juan Velasco, and Raquel Nogueira C. L. Lima have no conflict of interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
PRISMA flow diagram [7] for the selection of studies. Includes searches of databases, registers, and other sources
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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