Analyzing the Proliferation of Social Media Use Among Orthopaedic Surgery Residency Programs

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Orthopaedic Surgery
• Digital Health

Background:

• Social media influences resident selection for graduate medical education programs.
• COVID-19 pandemic necessitated adaptations in residency recruitment strategies due to travel restrictions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To characterize the prevalence of social media use by orthopaedic surgery residency programs.
• To examine changes in social media adoption before and during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2021 interview season).

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional analysis of 164 orthopaedic surgery residency programs.
• Data collected on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram use in May 2019, July 2020, and November 2020.
• Systematic identification of programs on social media platforms; descriptive statistics used for comparison.

Main Results:

• Total social media accounts increased over 300% from 76 in May 2019 to 239 in November 2020.
• Prevalence of platform use increased: Facebook (21.3% to 36.0%), Twitter (15.2% to 43.9%), and Instagram (9.1% to 65.9%).
• Instagram showed the most rapid expansion, with a 620% increase in program accounts.

Conclusions:

• Academic orthopaedic surgery residency programs demonstrated substantial growth in social media utilization.
• Instagram adoption is occurring at the fastest rate among these programs.
• Social media can be a valuable recruitment tool, but strategic platform selection is crucial.