Social media and surgery

Abstract

During the last years, social media use has increased in the surgical community. Social Media in surgery has created new challenges such as surgical education, patient privacy, professionalism, and the difference between the private and public virtual life. Facebook, YouTube or WebSurg are some of the main social media in the surgical field. Nevertheless, Twitter is the most common and relevant Media for surgeons. Some Twitter Hashtag such as #SoMe4Surgery or #colorectalsurgery went viral and had a significant influence in the surgical community. Some of the uses of social media in surgery are education of younger surgeons, surgical research, and relationship between surgeons. However, not everything in social media is positive. Some negative issues of social media use in surgery are, for example, lack of privacy, intellectual property conflicts, conflicts of interest and mistakes in the published information. In this article, the main social media, the use of these media, the advantages and the possible risks and negative issues of social media are discussed.