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

Comments

Originally published at http://doi.org/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

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