Social Media Use and Community-Based Cardiovascular Health-care Professionals: Perception versus Reality

Abstract

Social media use has dramatically increased in the past two decades. This growth has been seen in the health-care field as well. Social media is being used for a variety of activities including networking, education, public health, and marketing. Health-care professionals in cardiology participate in social media to varying degrees and in different ways. Current studies have focused primarily on physicians who have an established presence on social media. To learn more about the social media habits of community-based cardiology providers, we queried attendants at a cardiovascular conference held by our health-care system. The purpose of this article is to: Highlight the social media habits of a range of community-based cardiology providers and distinguish between producing and consuming social media. There is a predominance of social media content consumers compared to producersOutline important considerations when assessing the risks and benefits of social media use and the perceived concerns of cardiology health-care professionalsEmphasize the need to incorporate guidelines for social media use into institutional policies and provide training on social media use to the health-care community.

Keywords: Digital literacy; liability; public health; social media.