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Relationship Between Social Media and Healthgrades Ratings for Spine Neurosurgeons
Katriel E Lee1, Nima Alan2, Nikhil Dholaria3
1Department of Neurosurgery, Barrow Neurological Institute, St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, Phoenix, Arizona, USA.
Objective:
This study assessed whether social media involvement correlated with higher physician rating website (PRW) ratings and academic productivity.
Methods:
This retrospective study (November 2022-June 2023) reviewed all spine neurosurgeons in the American Association of Neurological Surgeons database. Neurosurgeon names were searched on Twitter/X, Instagram, and LinkedIn; number of followers was recorded. Healthgrades ratings and number of reviewers were collected. h-index was searched in Scopus. Statistical analysis included t-tests, Mann-Whitney U test, χ2 test, and analysis of variance.
Results:
A total of 1031 neurosurgeons were included (mean age, 61 years; 96.6% male). Median (interquartile range) Healthgrades rating was 4.20 (1.00), and median h-index was 5.0 (1.0). Surgeons with a presence on LinkedIn (528; 51.2%), Twitter/X (113; 11.0%), and Instagram (38; 3.7%) were younger than those without social media (P < 0.001). Median Healthgrades rating was 4.2 for those without and 4.55 for those with an Instagram account (P = 0.005). The median number of reviewers was 16.0 for surgeons without and 19.0 for surgeons with a LinkedIn account (P = 0.004). Surgeons with LinkedIn and Twitter/X accounts had a higher median h-index than surgeons not on these platforms (P < 0.001).
Conclusions:
Spine neurosurgeons involved in social media are typically younger than surgeons with no social media presence. Social media involvement was associated with higher ratings on PRWs (Instagram), more PRW reviews (LinkedIn), and higher h-index (LinkedIn and Twitter). These findings should be interpreted with care because the analyses are correlative rather than causal, and voluntary response bias is inherent to PRW data.
