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Electronic and Social Media-based Radiology Learning Initiative

Posted May 31, 2018 Updated Apr 10, 2023
By Nicholas A. Koontz MD , Danielle V. Hill MD , Sean C. Dodson MD , Alisha E. Capps MD , Aaron P. Kamer MD , Mark S. Frank MD , Darel E. Heitkamp MD
13 min read

Rationale and Objectives

We report the development of a new “Case of the Day” (COTD) educational initiative using email, social media (SoMe), and a website to disseminate content, as well as its trends in viewership and assessment of utility for the first year of implementation.

Materials/Methods

Using an image-rich format, a new unknown case was disseminated to radiology trainees and attendings at our institution by email twice per week, including history, salient images, and follow-up questions. Simultaneously, content was externally disseminated on Twitter and a publicly viewable departmental website. On subsequent days, the answer was posted via email, Twitter, and website in the form of a brief YouTube video lecture. Viewership data were collected over the first 12 months (July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2017), and an anonymous survey of participants was performed.

Results

Sixty-five COTDs had complete viewership data and were included in our analysis, yielding 4911 “case” email views (mean = 76), 3798 “answer” email views (mean = 58), 68,034 “case” Twitter impressions (mean = 1047), 75,724 “answer” Twitter impressions (mean = 1164), 5465 “case” Twitter engagements (mean = 84), and 5307 “answer” Twitter engagements (mean = 82). COTD YouTube video lectures garnered 3657 views (mean = 61) amounting to 10,358 minutes of total viewing time. Viewers were very satisfied with COTD quality, with 97% ( n = 63) reporting the quality as “good” or “excellent.”

Conclusions

Email and SoMe can serve as effective tools for disseminating radiology educational content. SoMe offers substantial external visibility and branding potential for programs.

Introduction

The past decade has seen a dramatic increase in the utilization of social media (SoMe) for uses ranging from personal entertainment, work-related marketing, and education. According to a recent national survey by the Pew Research Center, a substantial number of American internet users now use SoMe, most frequently in the form of Facebook (79%; facebook.com , Menlo Park, CA), Instagram (32%; Instagram.com , Menlo Park, CA), Pinterest (31%; pinterest.com , San Francisco, CA), LinkedIn (29%; linkedin.com , Sunnyvale, CA), and Twitter (24%; twitter.com , San Francisco, CA) . As of 2015, 65% of the American adult population reported utilization of SoMe, a striking increase compared to the 7% utilization rate reported in 2005 . SoMe engagement is particularly high among the Millennial and Generation X generations, with 86% of US adults between ages 18 and 29 and 80% of US adults between ages 30 and 49 reporting SoMe use .

SoMe may be an ideal platform to deliver medical education. Already familiar to medical professionals who use it recreationally , SoMe has a large built-in audience of pre-existing users. As a networking tool, SoMe transcends departmental, institutional, and even international boundaries, allowing learners to build valuable personal and professional relationships with other users. Importantly, the mainstream SoMe applications (apps), such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, are free to download and work universally across various mobile and tablet platforms, regardless of operating system. Easy access to participation in this technology, a key ingredient to the success of all SoMe, is vital to the way that free open-access medical education allows educators to generate and instantly share content with so many users worldwide , a practice which is highly valued by the current generation of learners . Lastly, through apps such as YouTube (Alphabet, Inc., San Bruno, CA), educational content can not only be disseminated worldwide, but also archived in perpetuity for the benefit of future learners.

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Figure 1, Workflow schematic of Case of the Day (COTD) content dissemination. On Mondays and Thursdays, an unknown case is both emailed and tweeted. Trainees and respondents then email or tweet the primary investigator, who provides feedback. On subsequent days, the answer is disseminated via email and Twitter in the form of a link to a YouTube mini-lecture.

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Materials and Methods

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Educational Tool and Education Initiative Overview

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Content Design

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TABLE 1

Case of the Day Content

Subspecialty Number Abdominal/GI 6 Cardiothoracic 1 Emergency Radiology 2 Interventional Radiology 1 Musculoskeletal 1 Neuororadiology—Brain 8 Neuroradiology—Head and Neck 37 Neuroradiology—Spine 3 Nuclear Medicine 5 Pediatric Radiology 1

Content Source Attending Radiologist Alone 19 Mentored Trainee 46

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Content Dissemination

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Figure 2, Representative email version of Case of the Day (COTD). For email dissemination of educational content, we include three standard features: brief clinical history, salient images, and follow-up questions, which are noted in this example. For each case, trainees are given 24 hours to email their best answers to the primary investigator, who provides immediate feedback to participants.

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Figure 3, Representative Twitter version of Case of the Day (COTD). (a) Paralleling the email COTD, an abbreviated COTD narrative is also disseminated on Twitter. This includes the standard features employed in the COTD emails, but in an abbreviated form because of the strict Twitter character limit. The use of #hashtags increases the searchability and visibility of content. (b) In addition to the salient images, answer Tweets also include a summary slide detailing key imaging features and important pitfalls.

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Data Collection

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Survey

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Statistical Analysis

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Results

Email Viewership

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Figure 4, Case of the Day (COTD) email case views. Although the case email viewership was similar throughout the first year of implementation, there was an overall downward trend in viewership of COTD case emails as the year progressed.

Figure 5, Case of the Day (COTD) email answer views. There was also an overall downward trend in viewership of COTD answer emails as the year progressed, which was more pronounced than the downtrend in COTD case email viewership ( Fig 4 ). Many trainees disclosed ignoring the answer email if they received positive feedback from the PI indicating that they submitted the correct answer.

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Twitter Viewership

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Figure 6, Case of the Day (COTD) Twitter case impressions. There was an overall upward trend in Twitter case impressions (ie, number of times people saw a given COTD case Tweet on Twitter) throughout the course of the year. Unlike email ( Figs 4 and 5 ) and YouTube ( Fig 10 ), COTD Twitter viewership demonstrated growth over the first year of implementation.

Figure 7, Case of the Day (COTD) Twitter case engagements. There was also an overall upward trend in Twitter case engagements (ie, number of times people interacted with a given COTD case Tweet) throughout the first year of COTD implementation.

Figure 8, Case of the Day (COTD) Twitter answer impressions. Like the trend observed with Twitter case impressions ( Fig 6 ), there was an upward trend in Twitter answer impressions (ie, number of times people saw a given COTD answer Tweet on Twitter) over the course of the first year of COTD implementation.

Figure 9, Case of the Day (COTD) Twitter answer engagements. There was also an upward trend in Twitter answer engagements (ie, number of times people interacted with a given COTD answer Tweet) over the course of the first year of COTD implementation.

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YouTube Viewership

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Figure 10, Case of the Day (COTD) YouTube views. Similar to email viewership ( Figs 4 and 5 ), there was a general downward trend in YouTube mini-lecture viewership over the course of the first year of implementation of COTD.

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Website Viewership

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Survey

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Discussion

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Conclusion

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Acknowledgments

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Appendix

Radiology Case of the Day

Year One Utilization Survey

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Academic Radiology, Volume 25, Issue 6
Journals General Radiology
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