JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

During the COVID-19 pandemic in person medical education at the University Medical Center Göttingen was restricted, making a rapid expansion of novel tools for digital education necessary. For the first time at our university medical center an Instagram account was developed as a tool for medical education and used as a supplementation for the Hematology and Medical Oncology teaching module of 2020/21.

Objective:

We aimed to evaluate the acceptance and role of Instagram as a novel teaching format in the education of medical students in hematology and medical oncology in the German medical curriculum.

Methods:

To investigate the role of Instagram in student education of hematology and medical oncology, an Instagram account was developed as a tie-in for the teaching module of 2020/21. The account was launched with the beginning of the teaching module and 43 posts were added over the 47 days of the teaching module (at least one post a day). Five categories for content were established: 1) engagement, 2) self-awareness, 3) everyday clinical life combined with teaching aids, 4) teaching aids and 5) scientific resources. Student interaction with the posts was measured on the basis of overall subscription, “likes”, comments and polls.

Results:

119 (73%) medical students subscribed to the Instagram account showing high acceptance and interest in the use of Instagram for medical education. 43 posts generated 325 interactions. The highest number of interactions was observed for the category “engagement” (15.17 interactions (5.01 SD)) followed by “self-awareness” (14.00 interactions (7.79 SD)). Averaging 7.3 “likes” per post, the interaction was relatively low. However, although the category “scientific resources” garnered the least likes (1.86 (1.81 SD) “likes”) of all categories, 66% of participants in the poll were interested in studies and reviews, suggesting that although “likes” help to estimate a general trend of interest, there are facets to interests that cannot be represented by likes. In the conducted Instagram polls 59% of 34 students stated they would prefer more humorous content, 96% of 56 wanted more posts about everyday clinical life, 66% of 41 more information about reviews and studies, 96% of 51 more mnemonics, and 100% of 49 were interested in more content on sensitive topics such as self-care.

Conclusions:

Instagram showed a high acceptance among medical students participating in the hematology and oncology teaching curriculum. Students were mostly interested in posts pertaining to routine clinical life, self-care topics and memory aids. More studies need to be conducted to comprehend the use of Instagram in medical education and to define the role Instagram is going to play in the future. Furthermore, evaluation guidelines and tools need to be developed.