Document Type
Article
Original Publication Date
2017
Journal/Book/Conference Title
PLOS One
Volume
12
Issue
1
DOI of Original Publication
10.1371/journal.pone.0168962
Date of Submission
January 2017
Abstract
Importance
New dissemination methods are needed to engage physicians in evidence-based continuing medical education (CME).
Objective
To examine the effectiveness of social media in engaging physicians in non-industry-sponsored CME.
Design
We tested the effect of different media platforms (e-mail, Facebook, paid Facebook and Twitter), CME topics, and different “hooks” (e.g., Q&A, clinical pearl and best evidence) on driving clicks to a landing site featuring non-industry sponsored CME. We modelled the effects of social media platform, CME topic, and hook using negative binomial regression on clicks to a single landing site. We used clicks to landing site adjusted for exposure and message number to calculate rate ratios. To understand how physicians interact with CME content on social media, we also conducted interviews with 10 physicians.
Setting
The National Physicians Alliance (NPA) membership.
Participants
NPA e-mail recipients, Facebook followers and friends, and Twitter followers.
Main Outcomes and Measures
Clicks to the NPA’s CME landing site.
Results
On average, 4,544 recipients received each message. Messages generated a total of 592 clicks to the landing site, for a rate of 5.4 clicks per 1000 recipients exposed. There were 5.4 clicks from e-mail, 11.9 clicks from Facebook, 5.5 clicks from paid Facebook, and 6.9 clicks from Twitter to the landing site for 1000 physicians exposed to each of 4 selected CME modules. A Facebook post generated 2.3x as many clicks to the landing site as did an e-mail after controlling for participant exposure, hook type and CME topic (p
Conclusions
Social media has a modest impact on driving traffic to evidence-based CME options. Facebook had a superior effect on driving physician web traffic to evidence-based CME compared to other social media platforms and email.
Rights
Copyright: This is an open access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication.
Is Part Of
VCU Family Medicine and Population Health Publications
Comments
Originally published at http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0168962