Prabhu Arpan V, Beriwal Sushil, Ahmed Wasim, Ayyaswami Varun, Simcock Richard, Katz Matthew S
UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR, USA.
Allegheny Health Network Academic Chief, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
Clin Transl Radiat Oncol. 2021 Sep 24;31:58-63. doi: 10.1016/j.ctro.2021.09.005. eCollection 2021 Nov.
Social media connects people globally and may enhance access to radiation oncology information. We characterized the global growth of the radiation oncology Twitter community using the hashtag #radonc.
We analyzed all public tweets bearing the hashtag #radonc from 2014 to 2019 using Symplur Signals. We collected data on #radonc activity and growth, stakeholder distribution, user geolocation, and languages. We obtained global Twitter user data and calculated average annual growth rates for users and tweets. We analyzed growth rates by stakeholder. We conducted thematic analysis on a sample of tweets in each three-year period using frequently occurring two-word combinations.
We identified 193,115 tweets including #radonc composed by 16,645 Twitter users. Globally, users wrote in 35 languages and came from 122 countries, with the known highest users from the United States, United Kingdom, and Spain. Use of #radonc expanded from 23 countries in 2014 to 116 in 2019. The average annual growth rate in #radonc users and tweets was 70.5% and 69.2%, respectively. The annual growth rate of #radonc users was significantly higher than for all Twitter users ( = 0.004). While doctors were the source of 46.9% of all tweets, research and government organizations had annual increases in tweet volume of 84.6% and 211.4%, respectively. From 2014 to 2016, promotion of the radiation oncology community was the most active theme, though this dropped to 7th in 2017-2019 as discussion increased regarding aspects of radiation and treated disease sites.
Use of #radonc has grown rapidly into a global community. Focused discussion related to radiation oncology has outpaced the growth of general Twitter use, both among physicians and non-physicians. #radonc has grown into a self-sustaining community. Further research is necessary to define the risks and benefits of social media in medicine and to determine whether it adds value to oncology practice.
社交媒体将全球各地的人们联系起来，可能会增加获取放射肿瘤学信息的机会。我们使用#radonc标签对放射肿瘤学推特社区的全球发展情况进行了描述。
我们使用Symplur Signals分析了2014年至2019年所有带有#radonc标签的公开推文。我们收集了有关#radonc活动与增长、利益相关者分布、用户地理位置和语言的数据。我们获取了全球推特用户数据，并计算了用户和推文的年均增长率。我们按利益相关者分析了增长率。我们使用频繁出现的双词组合对每三年时间段内的推文样本进行了主题分析。
我们识别出16,645名推特用户撰写的包含#radonc的193,115条推文。在全球范围内，用户使用35种语言，来自122个国家，已知用户最多的是美国、英国和西班牙。#radonc的使用范围从2014年的23个国家扩展到2019年的116个国家。#radonc用户和推文的年均增长率分别为70.5%和69.2%。#radonc用户的年增长率显著高于所有推特用户（P = 0.004）。虽然医生发布了所有推文的46.9%，但研究机构和政府组织的推文量年增长率分别为84.6%和211.4%。从2014年到2016年，放射肿瘤学社区的推广是最活跃的主题，不过在2017 - 2019年降至第7位，因为关于放射和治疗疾病部位的讨论有所增加。
#radonc的使用已迅速发展成为一个全球社区。与放射肿瘤学相关的重点讨论在医生和非医生中都超过了推特总体使用的增长速度。#radonc已发展成为一个自我维持的社区。有必要进一步研究以确定社交媒体在医学中的风险和益处，并确定它是否为肿瘤学实践增加价值。
