ABSTRACT
Background: Studies of social media in both medicine and dentistry have largely focused on the value of social media for
marketing to and communicating with patients and for clinical education. There is limited evidence of how dental clinicians
contribute to and use social media to disseminate and access information relevant to clinical care.
Objective: The purpose of this study was to inventory and assess the entry, growth, sources, and content of clinically relevant
social media in dentistry.
Methods: We developed an inventory of blogs, podcasts, videos, and associated social media disseminating clinical information
to dentists. We assessed hosts’ media activity in terms of their combinations of modalities, entry and exit dates, frequency of
posting, types of content posted, and size of audience.
Results: Our study showed that clinically relevant information is posted by dentists and hygienists on social media. Clinically
relevant information was provided in 89 blogs and podcasts, and topic analysis showed motives for blogging by host type: 55%
(49 hosts) were practicing dentists or hygienists, followed by consultants (27 hosts, 30%), media including publishers and
discussion board hosts (8 hosts, 9%), and professional organizations and corporations.
Conclusions: We demonstrated the participation of and potential for practicing dentists and hygienists to use social media to
share clinical and other information with practicing colleagues. There is a clear audience for these social media sites, suggesting
a changing mode of information diffusion in dentistry. This study was a first effort to fill the gap in understanding the nature and
potential role of social media in clinical dentistry.
Fonte: JOURNAL OF MEDICAL INTERNET RESEARCH – 2017;19(7):e269
Articolo consigliato dalla socia Laura Alovisi.
