Social Media Platforms for Radiologists: Perks and Perils

Introduction

Social media is a general term for digital communication channels that are typically available on mobile devices, on which individuals, as well as institutions, can connect, share ideas, and create new content ¹. Although the use of social media continues to grow every year, there are no established norms within which health care professionals should be using the current social media platforms and no guidelines on how they could generate value from their work. This Perspectives article is not intended to be a comprehensive review of social media for radiologists. It is, however, a starting point for those who have not dipped their toes in this open sea. The features of each of the main social media platforms relevant to radiologists are summarized in the Table .

Professional Networking and Career Development

Connecting to new people on social media and participating in discussions about a field of common interest afford opportunities for intellectually stimulating conversations with other professionals. As an example, Radiology: Artificial Intelligence promotes the #RadAIchat monthly, where topics and questions are posted on Twitter so that the audience can share their thoughts or opinions. In the same way, the American Journal of Radiology promotes the monthly #AJRChats . It can be a valuable way to share knowledge, debate, or simply learn from more experienced peers.

As a web-based technology, social media imposes no geographic barriers. Radiologists can use it to reach peers worldwide and seek collaborators, mentors, ideas, and jobs ^2,3. Medical students use it to match residency positions, and radiology practices and research groups use it to recruit physicians and scientists. For example, two authors of this article initially met and befriended one another on social media. Because of this underlying professional relationship that was established virtually, one was matched to the residency program at the institution where the other is a professor.

Social media proved particularly useful during the COVID-19 pandemic. Alvin et al ⁴ noted that trainees would miss out on an important aspect of their residency experience: the social relationships with their peers. To mitigate that, the Twitter hashtag #RadRes was developed in response to the pandemic lockdowns for residents worldwide to share thoughts and experiences.

Academic Outreach for Research and Education

Academic radiologists can use social media to extend their connections in research and education. Citing and commenting on recently published articles or meeting abstracts can be a good way to publicize one's academic interests. Users can also display their skill sets (eg, image interpretation, statistics, teaching) with their postings of videos, articles, or Twitter threads. In research, there is evidence that journal publications shared on Twitter are associated with higher citations and page views ^5,6. In education, social media can be used to share links for lectures or courses, with some platforms allowing for interactive engagement. In Brazil, a few radiologists are exploring social media platforms to monetize educational content, which is being done in one of two ways: (a) building a large audience of followers (eg, on Instagram) to sell courses or (b) developing approachable and appealing videos to monetize directly from YouTube by achieving a large number of views. Moreover, longer articles and blogs can be posted on LinkedIn or Facebook, enabling a more expansive way to communicate the writer's interests and viewpoints. Original content should always be created with a target audience in mind.

Clinical Outreach to Referring Physicians and Patients

Because of its large reach to many different sectors of the public, social media is a powerful tool for business outreach. It enables a radiologist to connect with referring physicians and build consultancy relationships, similar to the more conventional interactions in clinical rounds, the reading room, or multidisciplinary conferences. It offers excellent tools for radiologists to increase their professional visibility, display their expertise, and share their clinical knowledge. Radiology practices can also promote their patient care services. For example, patients can self-refer to radiologists for cancer screening or find interventional radiologists who offer novel or less widely available minimally invasive procedures. Finally, consultancy for independent review of patient cases or imaging examinations is an emerging business model in radiology that could improve the accuracy of reports ⁷.

Self-Education and News

Social media enables radiologists to stay current with recently published literature, educational materials, and professional news. The RSNA and the RSNA journals are very active on Twitter (eg, @radiology_rsna , @RadiologyEditor ), Instagram ( @rsnagram ), Facebook ( @RSNAfans ), YouTube ( @RSNAtube ), and LinkedIn ( @rsna ). Summaries of the most recent Radiology publications created by the Radiology In Training editorial board ( #RadInTraining ) are shared on Twitter and YouTube via multimedia ^8,9. These summaries are presented in the form of “In A Minute” videos ( https://www.youtube.com/user/RadiologyRSNA/playlists ) and Tweetorials (ie, Twitter threads) ( https://pubs.rsna.org/page/radiology/radintraining/twitter ) . They are created by the radiology residents, fellows, and postdoctoral researchers serving as Radiology In Training editors and are intended to highlight the clinically relevant teaching points from original research and review articles published in Radiology ⁹. Radiopaedia provides interactive courses, a broad range of cases, and summary articles about diseases and imaging findings. RadioGraphics and the RSNA Case Collection regularly publish interesting and challenging cases.

Potential Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

While social media offers huge opportunities for a radiologist's career development, it could create negative results if used inappropriately. Although stunts to attract media attention and provocative criticism can increase one's reach, they might have unintended adverse consequences on the content creator's image. Voicing views on potentially controversial topics (eg, politics, religion, social policy), while not prohibited, can close opportunities or create adversaries. Posting educational and professional content is safer and likely of higher yield to achieve career goals. When sharing content created by others, read it carefully and critically to ascertain veracity and accuracy and cite the original creator to avoid spreading “fake news.” Individuals who post on social media should also recognize that their messages are essentially permanent. Future employers can and will scrutinize past postings, looking to identify outlier employees or those with values differing from those of the employer.

Inadvertent public posting of protected health information (eg, name, date of birth, identification number, device serial number) is a potential pitfall when sharing patient images. This would have legal ramifications in most practice settings. When sharing radiologic cases, ensure that the images contain no burned-in protected health information.

Although there are few radiologists profiting through social media, monetizing usually requires a reasonable amount of effort, which would only be worth it if the profit is substantial when compared with the radiologists’ wages.

Some authors advocate the use of “humble-bragging,” that is, advertising one's accomplishments or accolades in a context that indicates that one is “grateful” to be the recipient. However, the line between bragging, humble-bragging, and acceptable self-promotion is subtle, and whether it would be considered acceptable usually depends on the context and the culture of the reader ¹⁰. Asking a friend to judge the content before posting may be helpful. It is human to become oblivious when one is enthusiastic about a subject.

Conclusion

Social media can be a powerful tool to establish relationships, expand connections, and foster a radiologist's career. Many radiologists have successfully increased their professional profile in clinical practice, research, and education through social media platforms. Although the potential for social media misuse cannot be overlooked, radiologists of the future will be routinely engaging in social media as an integral aspect of their profession.