Analysis of Neurosurgery Influencers on Instagram: Trends and Patterns of the Neurosurgeon's Social Media Footprint

Abstract

Social media outlets such as Instagram have recently become a popular tool for medical professionals to disseminate medical information to a large public audience. In this study, we identify the top neurosurgery influencers on Instagram and analyze trends between content type, audience interaction, and user engagement. A list of neurosurgeon Instagram profiles based on the number of followers, user engagement, and average interaction were compiled. Outcome variables such as the numbers of followers, likes, comments, hashtags, caption words, user engagement, and average user activity were collected and analyzed. The most recent 30 posts from each included profile were stratified into categories based on type of content. A total of 73 neurological surgeon "influencer" Instagram profiles met our inclusion and exclusion criteria [67 male (91.8%); 6 female (8.2%)]. Of the most recent 30 posts for each influencer, clinical and professional posts represented the majority (67.4%), while lifestyle and patient posts made up 30.3% and 2.3%, respectively. In comparison to the rest of the field (n=43), the 30 profiles with the most followers had a significantly higher average interaction (418.77 vs. 126.79; p<0.001), number of uploads (578.87 vs. 184.58;p=0.004), average number of likes given in the top posts (770.71 vs. 2150.40; p<0.001), average posts per week (2.40 vs. 1.12; p=0.041), and average posts per month (9.91 vs. 4.02.; p=0.015). Neurosurgeon influencers on Instagram post content that predominantly features educational and academic subject matter. Post content regarding the individual's personal life or extracurricular activities made up a lesser portion of content, and there were few posts categorized as patient testimonials.