JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Little to no scientific literature documents the content found on social media regarding orthopaedic procedures like robotic TKA. Studies analyzing social media discussions about medical procedures are exceptionally informative as they can give insight into public opinion, the involvement of different groups to the discussion, patient/clinician perspectives, knowledge transfer, among many others.

Objective:

To address the current gaps in the literature, we sought to analyze the discussions regarding robotic TKA on X, as it is the social media platform that is most used for healthcare communication

Methods:

A comprehensive search of the Twitter database for academic research was performed from inception (March 2006) to April 1st 2023 to identify all posts relating to robotic TKA. We retrieved data regarding the posts and authors, and we used a lexicon-based natural language processing Python library (TextBlob) to assess the sentiment of the posts. We manually categorized the post’s content and accounts. A multivariable regression model was used to associate metrics with higher engagement.

Results:

Our results showed that 61.6% of the content analyzed had a positive sentiment. The main actors discussing robotic TKAs on X were medical centers (19.3%), news channels (16.6%) and physicians/researchers (14.6%). The most popular post category was “awareness’’ (58.6%) followed by ‘’advertising” (11.3%), and ‘’research’’ (10.4%). Post count was unimpressive from 2010 to 2019 and took off in 2020 (249 posts), with a peak in 2022 (402 posts). Posts discussing patient experience and posts discussing research increased engagement by factors of 4 and 4,1 respectively.

Conclusions:

The elevated proportion of posts (61.6%) with a positive sentiment reflects a positive outlook towards robotic TKA on social media. Medical centers and news channels played a bigger role in the discussions surrounding robotic TKA than they do in other social media discussions about medical procedures/pathologies, while patient/caregiver involvement was significantly lower than usual. The significant contribution of news channels, combined with the overwhelming prevalence of posts categorized as ‘’awareness’’ (58,6%), might indicate that a public interest towards technological/medical advancements is driving the social media discussions on robotic TKA more than patients, physicians or researchers. The contribution of ‘’patient experience’’ and ‘’research’’ content appears to be significantly less than in other social media discussions about medical procedures, which can impact the overall accuracy of the content. The number of posts relating to robotic TKA took off in the year 2020 and has been growing since, which indicates that robotic TKA has been gaining in popularity over recent years. It is imperative to continue analyzing social media discussions surrounding medical procedures as they can give insight into public opinion, the involvement of different groups, patient/clinician perspectives, knowledge transfer, among many others.