How Health Care Professionals Use Social Media to Create Virtual Communities: An Integrative Review

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Medical Communication
• Digital Health

Background:

• Healthcare structures often hinder communication and knowledge sharing among professionals.
• Virtual communities offer a potential solution for networking and disseminating knowledge across disciplines.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review literature on social media use by healthcare professionals in creating virtual communities.
• To examine how these communities facilitate networking, knowledge sharing, and evidence-informed practice.

Main Methods:

• An integrative literature review of studies published between 1990 and 2015.
• Searches included PubMed, CINAHL, reference snowballing, and journal tables of contents.
• Included studies evaluated social media use by healthcare professionals, excluding protocols and narrative reviews.

Main Results:

• 72 studies were included, predominantly qualitative and mixed-methods.
• Common platforms included Listservs, Twitter, and general social media; physicians and nurses were frequent participants.
• Virtual communities were primarily established for sharing specialty knowledge, with members often reading more than posting.
• Knowledge sharing was facilitated by a culture of collectivism and reciprocity.

Conclusions:

• Healthcare professionals utilize social media to form virtual communities for knowledge exchange.
• Current virtual communities may exhibit 'tribal' behaviors, limiting broader knowledge dissemination.
• Further research is essential to evaluate the impact of social media on clinical practice and patient outcomes.