Hashtag Global Surgery: The Role of Social Media in Advancing the Field of Global Surgery

Introduction: Surgery is increasingly recognized as an indispensable part of healthcare, but lack of awareness about its cost-effectiveness and cross-cutting impact remain. Social media has become an important resource for healthcare professionals in a variety of settings due to its instant global reach in a non-discriminatory and low-threshold manner. In 2010, #globalsurgery was first used on Twitter to spread awareness, foster international collaborations, and raise voices of advocates around the world. Here, we examine the role of social media in the field of global surgery. Methods: The use of #globalsurgery on Twitter was analyzed through Tweetreach from July 31 to December 31, 2018. Additional analysis of hashtags in Spanish, Japanese, Malay, and Portuguese was done to determine the number of tweets, retweets, impressions, and users using #globalsurgery or translated hashtags. Sentiment analysis was performed to determine the affective state of tweets. Results: A total of 4,519 tweets and 15,861 retweets were posted by 4,449 different contributors. Tweets totalled 58,733,406 potential direct impressions and 46,560,293 potential amplified impressions, with potential reach of 11,272,014. English was the major language (99.47%), followed by Spanish (0.49%) and Japanese (0.04%). Portuguese and Malay hashtags were not used during the study period. Conclusion: #globalsurgery provides an innovative way to overcome barriers and strengthen collaboration among advocates, and more effectively raise awareness about global surgery.