Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on a Physician Group's WhatsApp Chat: Qualitative Content Analysis.

Sawsan Abdel-Razig,Halah Ibrahim,Pascale Anglade

doi:10.2196/31791

Abstract

BackgroundSocial media has emerged as an effective means of information sharing and community building among health professionals. The utility of these platforms is likely heightened during times of health system crises and global uncertainty. Studies have demonstrated that physicians’ social media platforms serve to bridge the gap of information between on-the-ground experiences of health care workers and emerging knowledge.ObjectiveThe primary aim of this study was to characterize the use of a physician WhatsApp (WhatsApp LLC) group chat during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsThrough the lens of the social network theory, we performed a qualitative content analysis of the posts of a women physician WhatsApp group located in the United Arab Emirates between February 1, 2020, and May 31, 2020, that is, during the initial surge of COVID-19 cases.ResultsThere were 6101 posts during the study period, which reflected a 2.6-fold increase in platform use when compared with platform use in the year prior. A total of 8 themes and 9 subthemes were described. The top 3 uses of the platform were requests for information (posts: 2818/6101, 46.2%), member support and promotion (posts: 988/6101, 16.2%), and information sharing (posts: 896/6101, 14.7%). A substantial proportion of posts were related to COVID-19 (2653/6101, 43.5%), with the most popular theme being requests for logistical (nonmedical) information. Among posts containing COVID-19–related medical information, it was notable that two-thirds (571/868, 65.8%) of these posts were from public mass media or unverified sources.ConclusionsHealth crises can potentiate the use of social media platforms among physicians. This reflects physicians’ tendency to turn to these platforms for information sharing and community building purposes. However, important questions remain regarding the accuracy and credibility of the information shared. Our findings suggest that the training of physicians in social media practices and information dissemination may be needed.

Highlights

We previously reported an analysis of the WhatsApp posts of a women physician group; we noted that the platform was effective in enabling female physicians to expand networks, exchange ideas, share scientific information, celebrate accomplishments, and provide support to colleagues [9]
The primary purpose of this study was to characterize the use of a social media platform among members of a physician group during the COVID-19 pandemic
Our report on the use of a physician group’s WhatsApp chat during the evolving COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates the increased use of this social media forum, and a substantial proportion of the content was related to COVID-19

Summary

Introduction

Social media has emerged as an effective means of information sharing and community building among health professionals The utility of these platforms is likely heightened during times of health system crises and global uncertainty. Conclusions: Health crises can potentiate the use of social media platforms among physicians This reflects physicians’ tendency to turn to these platforms for information sharing and community building purposes. Several studies have shown that physicians’ social media platforms have become significant facilitators of bridging gaps of information between on-the-ground experiences of health care workers and emerging, scientific, clinical, and population-level knowledge [2,3]. Other studies have described how health care providers worldwide have used Twitter and WhatsApp (WhatsApp LLC) during the pandemic to disseminate news and discoveries to colleagues and communicate health information directly to patients [2,8]. There is limited published information on the use of social media among groups of physicians during a medical and public health crisis

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