Social media; resolving tunnel vision in practicing medicine

BACKGROUND: With the emergence of social media, physicians who use social media, including emergency medicine physicians, have shared their experiences with their colleagues instead of working alone and keeping their experiences to themselves. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the rate and type of use of electronic online sources and social media, in order to improve learning and education among emergency medicine residents. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study carried out from September 2015 until August 2016 on emergency medicine residents of two main medical universities of Tehran, Iran. A questionnaire was prepared by reviewing the existing studies and asking emergency medicine professors inside and outside Iran for opinions. Census sampling method was applied and all emergency medicine residents were included. The gathered data were analyzed using statistical tests of chi square, Independent-samples t-test and Pearson’s correlation coefficient via SPSS version 21. RESULTS: Seventy three residents with the mean age of 34.2±5.2 years participated in this study (60.3% female). Smart phone is the most important tool they use for connecting to the Internet. About 30% use the Internet for about 1–2 hours a day. In half of these participants less than 25% of this time is spent on something related to their academic field of study. The correlation of sex (p=0.034) and age (p=0.049) with extent of using social media related to the academic field of study were significant. Other analytical analyses were not statistically significant (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: In summary, the findings of current study showed that despite sufficient access to proper technology, use of social media and online sources by high majority of the studied EM residents regarding improvement of their learning and educational level is very limited.