Instagram: A platform for ultrasound education?. (February 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Alsafi, Nour; Alsafi, Ali
• Is Part Of: Ultrasound. Volume 29:Number 1(2021)
• Page Start: 44
• Page End: 47
• Publication Date: 2021-02
• Subjects: Ultrasound -- social media -- radiology -- education -- medical; Ultrasonic imaging -- Periodicals; Ultrasonography -- Periodicals; 616.0754305
• DOI: 10.1177/1742271X20920908
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1742-271X

Abstract

Introduction: Social media has become an integral part of our daily life with 38 million users in the UK alone and the average user being logged-in for 135 minutes daily. Social media is increasingly used to disseminate learning in a variety of fields including medicine. Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the proportion of Instagram posts using #ultrasound for educational content and compare this with #radiology. We also aimed to assess the changes in the use of the newly introduced #UltrasoundEd for ultrasound education since its introduction in November 2018. Methods: Instagram searches were conducted using the hashtags: #ultrasound and #radiology, and the content of the first 100 posts from each search was analysed and classified into being either social or educational. A second search using #UltrasoundEd was conducted at baseline, 3 months and 12 months. Fisher's exact test was used to compare categorical data. Results: The searches retrieved 461, 884 #ultrasound and 243, 011 #radiology posts. From the first 100 #ultrasound posts, 11 were educational and 89 were social. The social posts predominantly related to announcements of pregnancy. Of the 100 #radiology posts, 49 were educational, while 51 were classified as social. The number of posts with the hashtag #UltrasoundEd increased over the study period from 15 to 232, with the majority of posts being educational. Conclusions: Educational ultrasound content is difficult to separate from social posts on Instagram. The use of the hashtag #UltrasoundEd makes educational ultrasound content more readily identifiable.