Social Media in Interventional Radiology: Evaluation of Residency Applicant Perspective and Twitter Activity of Training Programs

Background: This study aimed to understand the role of social media (SM) use by prospective interventional radiology trainees in their evaluation of residency programs during the 2020 to 2021 virtual match cycle, and to assess Twitter activity and engagement of residency programs.

Materials and Methods: An IRB-approved 12-question anonymous REDCap survey was disseminated to medical students via e-mail, SM platforms, and society forums. Then, Twitter activity of integrated IR residency programs was organized by account type (Department of Radiology [DoR], IR Section/Department [IR], or Residency Program [RP]) and activity parameters were evaluated using web-based analytics tool twitonomy.com. Unpaired t-test was utilized for data analysis.

Results: Seventy responses (75.26%) were included of which 34 (48.6%) reported participating in the 2020 to 2021 Match cycle. Twitter was the dominant SM platform used to evaluate residency programs (82.2% of applicants). Current applicants reported significantly greater use of Twitter and Facebook for evaluating residency programs than prospective applicants (p < 0.05). Also, 78.1% of applicants perceived away rotations to be less useful in evaluating programs this cycle than in past years, whereas reliance of applicants on online resources including social media increased. Of the 89 programs evaluated, 58 (65.2%), 47 (52.80%), and 19 (21.3%) programs had DoR, IR, and RP Twitter handles, respectively. DoR and IR accounts had a larger presence and following, but RP accounts generated more user engagement and reciprocation.

Conclusion: Twitter appears to be the dominant SM platform utilized by applicants to assess residency programs. SM platforms can provide an excellent outlet for residency programs to interact with current and future applicants.

Publikationsverlauf

Artikel online veröffentlicht:
14. Dezember 2021