Jhawar Sachin R, Prabhu Vinay, Katz Matthew S, Motwani Sabin B
Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, Department of Radiation Oncology, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey.
Department of Radiology, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York, New York.
Adv Radiat Oncol. 2017 Jun 13;2(3):270-276. doi: 10.1016/j.adro.2017.06.003. eCollection 2017 Jul-Sep.
Medical societies are incorporating Twitter to communicate with their members and connect with patients. This study compares the online presence of 3 major oncologic societies.
All available tweets in 2014 by the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), and Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) were collected. We analyzed whether posts were original content or retweets. The monthly tweet rate was followed to assess trends. We created 2 new metrics, supporter ratio and tweet density, to correlate online presence and engagement with offline membership breadth. The supporter ratio is the number of people following the organization divided by the number of registered members of each society. The tweet density is the total number of posts divided by the number of registered members of each society.
In February 2015, ASCO, ASTRO, and SSO had 36,385; 10,899; and 2721 members, respectively. ASCO's Twitter handle had 33,974 followers, with a supporter ratio of 0.93. A total of 2563 original tweets and 1416 retweets were estimated, which represents a tweet density of 0.11. @ASTRO_org had 5445 followers and a supporter ratio of 0.50. In 2014, ASTRO posted 415 original content tweets and 9 retweets, with a tweet density of 0.039. SSO had a supporter ratio of 0.91 on the basis of 2481 followers. In 2014, SSO posted 207 original tweets and 190 retweets, with a tweet density of 0.15. An increase in tweets and retweets was seen during the month of each society's annual meeting. ASTRO's 61% increase in September 2014 was smaller than SSO's 462% and ASCO's 84%.
ASTRO's use of Twitter lags behind ASCO and SSO. Although all 3 societies show increased Twitter use during their annual meetings, they should work toward more meaningful engagement throughout the year. The new metrics of tweet density and supporter ratio will serve as benchmarks for member engagement in future studies.
医学协会正在利用推特与会员进行沟通并与患者建立联系。本研究比较了3个主要肿瘤学协会在网络上的活跃度。
收集了美国放射肿瘤学会（ASTRO）、美国临床肿瘤学会（ASCO）和外科肿瘤学会（SSO）在2014年发布的所有可用推文。我们分析了推文是原创内容还是转发内容。跟踪每月的推文发布率以评估趋势。我们创建了两个新指标，支持者比率和推文密度，以关联网络活跃度和参与度与线下会员规模。支持者比率是关注该组织的人数除以每个协会的注册会员人数。推文密度是发布的推文总数除以每个协会的注册会员人数。
2015年2月，ASCO、ASTRO和SSO的会员人数分别为36385人、10899人和2721人。ASCO的推特账号有33974名关注者，支持者比率为0.93。估计共有2563条原创推文和1416条转发推文，推文密度为0.11。@ASTRO_org有5445名关注者，支持者比率为0.50。2014年，ASTRO发布了415条原创内容推文和9条转发推文，推文密度为0.039。基于2481名关注者，SSO的支持者比率为0.91。2014年，SSO发布了207条原创推文和190条转发推文，推文密度为0.15。在每个协会年会召开的当月，推文和转发推文数量都有所增加。2014年9月ASTRO增加了61%，低于SSO的462%和ASCO的84%。
ASTRO在推特的使用方面落后于ASCO和SSO。尽管这3个协会在年会期间推特使用量都有所增加，但它们应努力在全年实现更有意义的互动。推文密度和支持者比率这两个新指标将作为未来研究中会员参与度的基准。
