Understanding social media: how its popularity could be used to advance medical education in stroke care?

Abstract

The wide availability of social media (SM) has revolutionized human interactions and education in different settings (e.g., household, workplace, academic, hospitals). Nearly 60% of the global population spend a daily average of over 6h of screen time. By facilitating audio, video, and interactive material, SM has reshaped users' perceptions, choices, and communication. The science behind SM can be explained by the activation of the brain reward pathways which explains the success of SM platforms lead by user-generated content (i.e., TikTok). Our understanding of SM user's interests, mode of access, time spent with screens, and internet are critical to advance medical education by applying new learning technologies to advance medical education and stroke care. For example, the top 20 most visited websites and the most searched hashtags on TikTok in 2022 did not include any health-related topics, reflecting a challenging competition for attention of different segments of the population. We must overcome current gaps in medical education such as increased curricular activities, increasingly demanding tasks, differences in personal preferences between residents and faculty members, etc. New strategies using more engaging learning technologies and SM platforms (e.g., stroke simulations, interactive diagnostic and therapeutic decisions, tracking user's attention to assess knowledge transfer) are needed. This would allow a more effective delivery of educational content by stimulating the curiosity and participation of students, patients, and physicians offering more rewarding experiences across the continuum of stroke care.