Contemporary engagement with social media amongst hernia surgery specialists

Purpose Healthcare professional engagement is increasing. This study aims to identify levels of adoption and engagement of several social media platforms by a large international cohort of hernia surgery specialists. Methods Hernia specialists attending the 38th International Congress of the European Hernia Society were identified. A manual search was then performed on Twitter, ResearchGate, and LinkedIn to identify those who had named accounts. Where accounts were identified, data on markers of utilisation were assessed. Results 759 surgeons (88.5% male) from 57 countries were identified. 334 surgeons (44%) engaged with a social media platform. 39 (5.1%) had Twitter accounts, 189 (24.9%) had ResearchGate accounts and 265 (34.9%) had LinkedIn accounts. 137 surgeons (18.1%) had accounts on 2 or more social media platforms. There was no gender association with social media account ownership ( p > 0.05). Engagement in one social media platform was associated with increased engagement and utilisation on other platforms; LinkedIn users were more likely to have Twitter accounts ( p