Analysis of the Association of Residents in Radiation Oncology Equity and Inclusion Subcommittee (ARRO EISC) Black History Month (BHM) Campaign: Moving Beyond Awareness

Abstract

Background Social Media (SoMe) is an important tool to translate knowledge for Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI). It promotes collaborative discussions beyond traditional borders. We report on our experience with our second annual Association of Residents in Radiation Oncology (ARRO) Equity and Inclusion Subcommittee (EISC) Black History Month (BHM) campaign. We hypothesize that this social media awareness campaign will result in participation and engagement among radiation oncologists (ROs). Methods A one-month Twitter campaign was conducted by the ARRO EISC from February 4th to March 8th, 2022. We highlighted work of one historical Black RO weekly through a series of Tweets, video presentations, and engagement (replies, quote tweets, retweets, and likes). Main hashtags utilized included #BlackHistoryMonth and #EISC. Tweets were collected each week using NodeXL. Cross-sectional analysis provided engagement and demographic data. Results There were 59 unique tweets (22, 10, 8, 19, during weeks 1-4 respectively) including 33 original (14, 6, 5, 8) and 26 with quoted comments (8, 4, 3, 11). There were 18 replies (8, 2, 4, 4), 80 retweets (32, 18, 9, 21), and 311 likes (32, 18, 9, 21). There were 6,012 video views (3034, 844, 1099, 1035). For the weekly tweets, there were a total of 48,181 impressions (27224, 6227, 7280, 7450) and 1,201 engagements (448, 176, 184, 393). Among 64 total participants, 20 provided unique content (48, 18, 13, 25), with 45 trainees (including 37 RO Residents/Fellows and 6 medical students), 39 MD staff including 35 ROs and 3 oncology-related disciplines. Additional participants included 10 oncology allied healthcare professionals including 7 physicists, 18 organizations including institutions and specialty societies. The most online engagement was from RO residents (169, 40.4%), RO faculty (143, 34.2%), organizations (52, 12.4%), and others (32, 7.7%). Activity was highest on week 1 and the day of the original posts. There were more RO-related black history month tweets not related to our campaign, including cross-tweeting from our participants and partners. Discussion We showed sustained interest through an intentional social media campaign highlighting Black RO during BHM with an increase in number of participants, and high engagement using video presentations. Limitations included missing data from lack of hashtag use, inability to quantify reach outside Twitter, English language, and North America. Future campaigns can focus on greater coordination with Black ROs engaging in similar activities and focused planning leading to Black History Month. Social Media (SoMe) is an important tool to translate knowledge for Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI). It promotes collaborative discussions beyond traditional borders. We report on our experience with our second annual Association of Residents in Radiation Oncology (ARRO) Equity and Inclusion Subcommittee (EISC) Black History Month (BHM) campaign. We hypothesize that this social media awareness campaign will result in participation and engagement among radiation oncologists (ROs). A one-month Twitter campaign was conducted by the ARRO EISC from February 4th to March 8th, 2022. We highlighted work of one historical Black RO weekly through a series of Tweets, video presentations, and engagement (replies, quote tweets, retweets, and likes). Main hashtags utilized included #BlackHistoryMonth and #EISC. Tweets were collected each week using NodeXL. Cross-sectional analysis provided engagement and demographic data. There were 59 unique tweets (22, 10, 8, 19, during weeks 1-4 respectively) including 33 original (14, 6, 5, 8) and 26 with quoted comments (8, 4, 3, 11). There were 18 replies (8, 2, 4, 4), 80 retweets (32, 18, 9, 21), and 311 likes (32, 18, 9, 21). There were 6,012 video views (3034, 844, 1099, 1035). For the weekly tweets, there were a total of 48,181 impressions (27224, 6227, 7280, 7450) and 1,201 engagements (448, 176, 184, 393). Among 64 total participants, 20 provided unique content (48, 18, 13, 25), with 45 trainees (including 37 RO Residents/Fellows and 6 medical students), 39 MD staff including 35 ROs and 3 oncology-related disciplines. Additional participants included 10 oncology allied healthcare professionals including 7 physicists, 18 organizations including institutions and specialty societies. The most online engagement was from RO residents (169, 40.4%), RO faculty (143, 34.2%), organizations (52, 12.4%), and others (32, 7.7%). Activity was highest on week 1 and the day of the original posts. There were more RO-related black history month tweets not related to our campaign, including cross-tweeting from our participants and partners. We showed sustained interest through an intentional social media campaign highlighting Black RO during BHM with an increase in number of participants, and high engagement using video presentations. Limitations included missing data from lack of hashtag use, inability to quantify reach outside Twitter, English language, and North America. Future campaigns can focus on greater coordination with Black ROs engaging in similar activities and focused planning leading to Black History Month.