Perception among Healthcare Professionals of the Use of Social Media in Translating Research Evidence into Clinical Practice in Mangalore

INTRODUCTION: Social media has a potential to bring about major changes in the healthcare system. OBJECTIVE: To find out the pattern of use of social media among healthcare professionals (HCPs) and perception, facilitators, and barriers of using social media, to translate evidence into clinical practice. METHOD: We conducted a cross-sectional study among 196 HCPs of institutions attached to a university using a self-administered questionnaire. RESULT: 97.3% used social media; however, only 63.4% used it for research. YouTube was the most preferred media. Majority of people believed that social media enables wide range of evidence over the shorter span of time, poses a threat to privacy, and cannot replace face to face interaction. Perceived barriers were the privacy concern, unprofessional behavior, lack of reliability, and information overload. CONCLUSION: There is a need for the development of appropriate guidelines for sharing the research output among various stakeholders using social media.