Infectious Disease
A survey shows that men among doctors are getting more professional benefits from social media
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Jain does not report any relevant financial information. In the study you will find all relevant financial information from all other authors.
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In general, doctors felt that social media was a helpful collaborative tool, but men were more likely than women to report certain professional benefits of using it, a survey found.
“Using social media could be a way to circumvent some of the structural and systemic differences that exist to reinforce the voices that are most needed but are often underrepresented.” Shikha Jain, MD, FACP, An assistant professor of medicine in the Department of Hematology, Oncology, and Cell Therapy at the University of Illinois Cancer Center in Chicago told Healio Primary Care.
The researchers conducted the survey on Twitter between February and March 2019 to see how doctors’ social media usage varied based on gender and how it benefited their careers. A total of 577 doctors – 321 of them women – took part in the survey.
Jain and colleagues reported that both men and women used social media to build their professional networks (69% vs 67%), and agreed that social media is collaborative work with individuals within (70% vs 68%) and outside of their area of expertise (59% vs 56%) and outside their institution (65% vs 63%).
Compared to men, however, women doctors reported less frequently that the use of social media expanded their research portfolio (48% versus 36%; P = 0.005) or led to a lecture engagement (39% versus 30%; P <) 0.001) or a grant option (25 % versus 21%; P = 0.02). Doctors were more likely to report that social media use helped build a support network (55% vs 73%; P <0.001), but were less likely to use social media to learn about research (83% vs 68%); P <0.001) or clinical subjects (86% versus 76%; P = 0.003).
Jain, who is also the editor of HemOnc Today and the host of the Oncology Overdrive podcast, said the results were “a little surprising” and “worrying”.
“Time spent on social media is typically spent in leisure time and is underestimated and not compensated, much like much of the justice work women do in medicine,” she said. “If we want to ensure that we promote diversity, equity and inclusion in both real life and digital space, we need to remember to apply the same intentionality when engaging in the digital world.”
Jain encouraged doctors to learn about organizations like Women of Impact and Dear Pandemic, as well as events like the Women in Medicine Summit, which provide examples of how “an equity can be applied to our social media engagements,” she said.
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