Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia.
Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia.
J Am Coll Radiol. 2018 Jan;15(1 Pt B):224-228. doi: 10.1016/j.jacr.2017.09.013. Epub 2017 Nov 11.
Facebook (Facebook, Inc, Menlo Park, California, USA) is the most popular social networking platform worldwide. Facebook groups are virtual communities of people who share a common interest. Breast Imaging Radiologists is a Facebook group for radiologists with an interest in breast imaging. The purpose of this study was to analyze the membership and activity of the Breast Imaging Radiologists Facebook group (BIRFG) for 2 years since its inception.
Using both the Grytics (www.grytics.com) and Sociograph (www.sociograph.io) analytic engines, the activity of the BIRFG was analyzed retrospectively from its inception on February 11, 2015, through February 12, 2017. Activity data were exported for further qualitative and quantitative analysis using Excel (Microsoft, Redmond, Washington, USA). Member demographic data were obtained by querying public Facebook profiles, US News Doctor Finder (US News & World Report, Washington, DC, USA), Doximity (Doximity, San Francisco, California, USA), and Google (Google Inc, Mountain View, California, USA).
Membership grew from 1 to 774 over the study period, and 84% of the members were female. There were 493 posts, 3,253 comments, and 1,732 reactions; 92% of posts received either comments or reactions. Each post received an average of 6.6 comments, and 55% of members were active over the study period. There was an increase in all measures of activity from year 1 to year 2.
Our findings indicate that radiologists find value in using Facebook groups as a forum to network and exchange information about breast imaging. This may be generalizable to other radiology subspecialties. Given the popularity and accessibility of Facebook for personal use, it may prove a more comfortable social medium for radiologists to interact professionally.
Facebook（Facebook，Inc，美国加利福尼亚州门洛帕克）是全球最受欢迎的社交网络平台。Facebook 群组是具有共同兴趣的人们的虚拟社区。乳腺影像学放射科医师是一个对乳腺成像感兴趣的放射科医师的 Facebook 群组。本研究的目的是分析自成立以来的 2 年内乳腺影像学放射科医师 Facebook 群组（BIRFG）的成员和活动情况。
使用 Grytics（www.grytics.com）和 Sociograph（www.sociograph.io）分析引擎，从 2015 年 2 月 11 日开始回顾性分析 BIRFG 的活动情况，直到 2017 年 2 月 12 日。使用 Excel（Microsoft，华盛顿州雷德蒙德）导出活动数据，以便进一步进行定性和定量分析。通过查询公共 Facebook 个人资料、US News Doctor Finder（美国新闻与世界报道，华盛顿特区）、Doximity（Doximity，加利福尼亚州旧金山）和 Google（Google Inc，加利福尼亚州山景城）获得成员的人口统计学数据。
在研究期间，成员人数从 1 人增加到 774 人，其中 84%的成员为女性。有 493 个帖子、3253 条评论和 1732 个反应；92%的帖子收到了评论或反应。每个帖子平均收到 6.6 条评论，55%的成员在研究期间保持活跃。从第 1 年到第 2 年，所有活动指标均有所增加。
我们的发现表明，放射科医师发现使用 Facebook 群组作为网络和交流乳腺成像信息的论坛具有价值。这可能适用于其他放射科亚专业。鉴于 Facebook 作为个人用途的普及性和可访问性，它可能为放射科医师提供一个更舒适的专业社交媒介。
