Teaching Everyone Everywhere All at Once: Leveraging Social Media to Implement a Multisite Fungal Diagnostics...

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Infectious Diseases
• Medical Diagnostics

Background:

• Environmental fungi pose significant health risks.
• Invasive fungal infections (IFIs) require accurate diagnosis through in vitro diagnostics.
• Clinicians often lack sufficient knowledge regarding IFI diagnostics and interpretation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and implement a social media-based educational curriculum on IFIs and diagnostics.
• To assess the effectiveness of a Twitter-based curriculum in improving clinician knowledge.
• To identify perceived benefits and barriers of using social media for medical education.

Main Methods:

• A multisite Twitter-based curriculum was delivered over 8 weeks.
• Clinicians were surveyed pre- and post-curriculum, with a subset interviewed.
• Quantitative data included knowledge assessments and Twitter analytics; qualitative data from interviews.

Main Results:

• A significant increase in correct answers was observed in post-curriculum knowledge assessments (72% vs 80%, P = .005).
• Perceived benefits included engaging content and a dedicated Twitter account; barriers included awareness and competing priorities.
• The Twitter account gained 1400 followers from 65 countries, with high engagement rates on educational posts.

Conclusions:

• Social media platforms like Twitter can be effective tools for disseminating medical knowledge to a broad audience.
• Implementing social media curricula requires addressing potential barriers such as awareness and timing.
• This approach offers a scalable method for enhancing clinician education on critical health topics like IFIs.