Fine social aspiration: Twitter as a voice for cytopathology

Social media is an influential tool that has the power to transform cytopathology. Twitter is being used more and more to share cutting-edge updates from pathology meetings ("live-tweeting"). Modern smartphones can now take high resolution microscopic photographs and easily transmit them worldwide via Twitter, Facebook, and other social media, allowing cytopathologists to share educational pearls and discuss difficult cases on a global scale like never before. Social media also allows cytopathologists to share a behind-the-scenes look at their subspecialty with other physicians and even the non-medical public, helping them to better understand the crucial importance of cytopathology in modern medicine. This could positively impact rapport with other specialties, influence policy making, and possibly even improve delivery of patient care. Rare disease patient communities are being formed by patients on Facebook. By joining and volunteering with these patient groups, cytopathologists would have further opportunity to interact directly with patients and their family members, explaining the role of cytopathology in patient care and helping patients to better understand their own diseases. Social media enables cytopathologists and their colleagues in other pathology subspecialties to easily and rapidly form a broad and diverse worldwide network with one another. The authors believe that this is the key to a bright future for our specialty, a strong unified global community of pathologists all working together for education, patient advocacy, and outstanding patient care. Social media can allow us to build that community, strengthen its bonds, and harness its power like never before in history. Diagn. Cytopathol. 2017;45:705-713. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.