Adham Elmously, MD, Arash Salemi, MD, and T. Sloane Guy,MD
The use of social media by surgeons is not only encouraged, but should be seen as an obligation to patients and colleagues to help disseminate impor-tant information. In a rapidly expanding digital revolution, engagement in social media allows surgeons to network with the community and leverage content to a wide audience while owning their online presence.
It has been over a decade since the conception of social media, and despite its nearly ubiquitous use in modern life, many phy-sicians have opted out of participating in this platform. The main barriers to social media use for physicians seem to be lack of time, lack of perceived value, as well as concerns about personal and patient privacy.1 Currently, Facebook has over 1 billion active users and Twitter has over 300 million active users, with studies demonstrating that 84% of adults use the Internet and spend an average of 6 hours per week on social media,2,3 figures that are rising each year (Fig. 1).
