JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Twitter is a free, open-access social media provides an opportunity for advocacy, education, and collaboration. However, it is likely not utilized to full advantage by many disciplines in medicine and pitfalls exist in its use. In particular, there has not been a review of Twitter use and it applications in the field of neurology.

Objective:

This review seeks to provide an understanding of the current use of Twitter in the field of neurology to assist neurologists in engaging with this potentially powerful application to support their work.

Methods:

References for this Review were identified by searches of PubMed, Google Scholar, Embase, Medline and the Twitter site between March 2006 and July 2020 and references from relevant articles. The search terms “Twitter”, “neurology”, “journal clubs”, “tweetorials”, “Tweet chats”, “misuse”, “unprofessional”, “social media”, “health care”, were used.

Results:

Neurologists have taken to Twitter to educate, promote research, share information rapidly, and reach a broader potential global audience. Twitter has added a new dimension to learning and education in neurology in a practical and interactive manner. However, the “pros” of the Twitterverse must be balanced with the potential risks, which are common to all social media platforms (a graphical rendering is provided in Figure S1).

Conclusions:

Twitter has opened up new scopes for neurologists through multi-channel interactions particularly in promoting, furthering and communicating research, patient care, learning and sharing information and recent advancements. However, guidelines should be formulated to prevent its unregulated and inappropriate use.