ObjectiveSocial media (SoMe) plays a growing role in disseminating scientific information to health care professionals, patients, and the public. This study analyzes the influence of vascular care providers on Twitter (now X), comparing top influencers across specialties and exploring the connection between social media impact and academic productivity. MethodsA text search of Twitter bios in 2022 identified all United States-based users who self-identify as vascular surgeons (VSs), cardiothoracic surgeons (CTSs), interventional cardiologists (ICs), or interventional radiologists (IRs). The top 100 influencers in each specialty were selected based on number of followers. Social Authority (SA) was also used to evaluate Twitter influence. Standardized internet searches and publicly available data were used to obtain H-index, publication number, university affiliation, and professorship. The Twitter API was used to generate a tweet archive of each user’s last 3200 tweets, and specialty-related hashtags and mentions were compared. ResultsWe identified 8321 Twitter handles of users across four specialties, of which 1489 were included for analysis: VS (n = 310), CTS (n = 152), IC (n = 672), and IR (n = 355). Of the top 100 influencers ranked by follower count, most CTS (72%) and VS (67%) users were academically affiliated. Top VS influencers had a higher SA compared with CTS influencers (48 ± 6.0 vs 38 ± 11.4; P < .001) but lower SA than IC influencers (55 ± 6.4; P < .001). VSs also had fewer followers per user than ICs (1606 ± 1338 vs 4420 ± 7415; P < .001), but not CTSs or IRs. Among academically affiliated Twitter users, VSs had similar H-indices (19 ± 16), publications per user (88 ± 106), and citations per user (2547 ± 5182) as ICs, CTSs, and IRs (P > .050 for all). Academic rank was similar across specialties (P = .99), with most users representing assistant professors (30%-44%). A total of 1,063,419 of the most recent tweets from all users were analyzed. Forty-seven of the top 100 most tweeted handles belonged to individual IC accounts, and included international physicians and those who did not self-identify as ICs based on their bio text. Only six of the top 100 most tweeted handles were VSs. Over 20,000 unique hash tags were identified in the tweet archive. Of the top 100 most tweeted hashtags, 21 contained general cardiology subject matter, 16 related to IC-specific subject matter, eight pertained to VS-specific subject matter, and 12 were disease-specific hashtags that are treated by multiple specialties. ConclusionsWhen compared with complimentary specialists, VSs have lower SoMe influence than ICs, but similar influence as CTSs and IRs. VSs should engage with complimentary specialists to increase their SoMe reach and enhance the dissemination of vascular surgery-related content.
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