Orthopaedic surgery and its allied associations on social media: an observational study

The use of social media in orthopaedic surgery and its allied associations has not been studied. There are various associations which are actively engaged in social media platforms to enhance their impact with their users across the globe. We evaluated the social media presence and extent of involvement of orthopaedics journals and their publishing companies, orthopaedics organizations, orthopaedics device firms, and health organizations.

We compiled a global list of orthopaedics journals and publishing companies, orthopaedics organizations, orthopaedics device firms and health organizations affiliated to orthopaedics (USA) through the internet and their reliable online links. All the categories and their contents were screened on various social media networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn) in terms of their membership, likes, followers and active participation. Comparable variables were selected and compared.

Orthopaedics journals corresponding to sports and health were more notable than others on social networking platforms, i.e., British Journal of Sports Medicine and American Journal of Sports Medicine. Medscape, Lancet, and Elsevier being the multispeciality health and information publishing companies have remarkable participation on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Medtronic has maximum followers on all discussed social networking sites. Mayo Clinic Rochester, Minnesota and Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio were more admired than other orthopaedics hospitals on Facebook and Twitter in USA. American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons was the most popular society on Facebook and LinkedIn while American Orthopaedics Society for Sports Medicine was most talked about on twitter.

Although the active involvement of orthopaedics journals and their publishers is lower than multispecialty publishing companies but increasing trends were found recently. Orthopaedics organisations and device firms were actively involved on social networking while orthopaedics multispeciality health organizations associated with renowned universities have huge likes or followers. The social networking has the potential to flourish these journals and organisations in the near future as large populations over the globe have been actively participating and growing in their numbers exponentially.