Social Media and Mobile Usage Among Italian Cardiologists
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Abstract
Background:
The influence of social media (SM) as a modern channel of communication is growing constantly. Some studies have demonstrated that their use is also growing among the community of physicians to keep them up-to-date, to follow the medical research and literature, to share knowledge with colleagues and for medical education.
Objective:
To investigate the Italian cardiologists attitude to use SM tools (social networks websites, online health communities, blogs, podcasts, RSS feeds, and Wikipedia) and mobile applications for smartphone and tablets for personal and professional purposes, and to examine associations between cardiologists' characteristics and attitudes toward SM and mobile technology use.
Methods:
We conducted a survey among the cardiologists attending the Italian Cardiologists Society annual meeting held in Florence on June 2013. A questionnaire including more than 50 questions about SM and mobile usage were included in the conference bag.
Results:
Of about 2000 congress attendees, 290 (15%) responded to the survey (average age 51 years, SD 11 years, male 69%). Thirty-five percent reported using Facebook, 12% Twitter, 18% LinkedIn, and 53% YouTube. However these SM tools are used for professionals purposes only by 9%, 5%, 14% and 18% of cardiologists respectively. Blogs are used by 12% (6% for professional use) of the respondents, while other professional online community are used by 2,4%. Wikipedia and SlideShare are used respectively by 31% and 17% of the cardiologists for professional purposes and by 29% and 3% for personal purposes. Only few Italian cardiologists usually use RSS feeds ad podcasts, both for professional (3.8% and 5.5%) and personal interest (2.1% e 4.5%). Concerning the mobile technology, 68% of the respondents state they own a smartphone and 43% a tablet, with a huge trend towards Apple devices in both cases. Sixty-two percent of smartphone owners and 65% of tablet owners state they use at least one health/medical app.
Conclusions:
Italian cardiologists are usually familiar with Facebook and YouTube, less with Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs. However these tools are not commonly used for professionals' issues. On the other hand Wikipedia is used by one third of the cardiologists, even if published studies show its contents often lack of accuracy and reliability. Smartphones and tablets are widespread used by Italian cardiologists and two third of them use these devices for their work.
The influence of social media (SM) as a modern channel of communication is growing constantly. Some studies have demonstrated that their use is also growing among the community of physicians to keep them up-to-date, to follow the medical research and literature, to share knowledge with colleagues and for medical education.
Objective:
To investigate the Italian cardiologists attitude to use SM tools (social networks websites, online health communities, blogs, podcasts, RSS feeds, and Wikipedia) and mobile applications for smartphone and tablets for personal and professional purposes, and to examine associations between cardiologists' characteristics and attitudes toward SM and mobile technology use.
Methods:
We conducted a survey among the cardiologists attending the Italian Cardiologists Society annual meeting held in Florence on June 2013. A questionnaire including more than 50 questions about SM and mobile usage were included in the conference bag.
Results:
Of about 2000 congress attendees, 290 (15%) responded to the survey (average age 51 years, SD 11 years, male 69%). Thirty-five percent reported using Facebook, 12% Twitter, 18% LinkedIn, and 53% YouTube. However these SM tools are used for professionals purposes only by 9%, 5%, 14% and 18% of cardiologists respectively. Blogs are used by 12% (6% for professional use) of the respondents, while other professional online community are used by 2,4%. Wikipedia and SlideShare are used respectively by 31% and 17% of the cardiologists for professional purposes and by 29% and 3% for personal purposes. Only few Italian cardiologists usually use RSS feeds ad podcasts, both for professional (3.8% and 5.5%) and personal interest (2.1% e 4.5%). Concerning the mobile technology, 68% of the respondents state they own a smartphone and 43% a tablet, with a huge trend towards Apple devices in both cases. Sixty-two percent of smartphone owners and 65% of tablet owners state they use at least one health/medical app.
Conclusions:
Italian cardiologists are usually familiar with Facebook and YouTube, less with Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs. However these tools are not commonly used for professionals' issues. On the other hand Wikipedia is used by one third of the cardiologists, even if published studies show its contents often lack of accuracy and reliability. Smartphones and tablets are widespread used by Italian cardiologists and two third of them use these devices for their work.
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