Folaranmi Olaleke Oluwasegun, Ibiyeye Kehinde Muibat, Odetunde Olabode Ali, Kerr Darcy A
Department of Anatomic Pathology, University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Ilorin, Nigeria.
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH, United States.
Front Med (Lausanne). 2022 Jun 3;9:906950. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2022.906950. eCollection 2022.
The use of social media has evolved from platforms designed primarily for social connection and news sharing to include vibrant virtual academic environments. These platforms allow pathologists from across the globe to interact, exchange knowledge, and collaborate. Pathology in Nigeria, as in much of Africa, faces severe knowledge and practice gaps, with a lack of supporting modern laboratory infrastructure. Social media represents a potentially highly valuable avenue to help address some of these deficiencies. In this Perspective piece, we highlight our experience with the increasing role of social media in providing quality medical education in pathology globally, with an emphasis on how it bridges many of these gaps in Nigeria. Social media sites serve as sources of readily accessible, free, high-quality information to pathologists and trainees through academic discussions, quizzes, journal clubs, and informal consultations. They also provide opportunities for professional networking and research collaborations. Despite the availability and wide reach of these platforms, social media as a tool for advancement of knowledge in pathology is still undersubscribed in this part of the world. Improving awareness of and support for these tools will ideally help mitigate some of the challenges of practicing pathology in low and middle-income settings.
社交媒体的用途已从主要用于社交联系和新闻分享的平台，发展到包括充满活力的虚拟学术环境。这些平台使全球各地的病理学家能够互动、交流知识并开展合作。与非洲大部分地区一样，尼日利亚的病理学面临着严重的知识和实践差距，缺乏现代化的实验室基础设施支持。社交媒体是帮助弥补其中一些不足的潜在极有价值的途径。在这篇观点文章中，我们重点介绍社交媒体在全球病理学高质量医学教育中日益重要的作用方面的经验，尤其强调它如何弥合尼日利亚的诸多此类差距。社交媒体网站通过学术讨论、测验、期刊俱乐部和非正式咨询，为病理学家和学员提供随时可获取的、免费的高质量信息来源。它们还为专业人脉拓展和研究合作提供机会。尽管这些平台已广泛可得且覆盖面广，但在世界这一地区，社交媒体作为病理学知识进步的工具仍未得到充分利用。提高对这些工具的认识并给予支持，理想情况下将有助于缓解低收入和中等收入环境中病理学实践面临的一些挑战。
