The social media footprint of endoscopic spine surgery: a cross-sectional analysis of content on Twitter/X
Study Design Cross-sectional social media content analysis. Purpose Patients increasingly rely on social media for education and perspectives regarding surgical care. Given the growing interest in endoscopic spine surgery, there is a need to critically evaluate related content available on social me...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Korean Spine Society
2025-04-01
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| Series: | Asian Spine Journal |
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| Online Access: | http://asianspinejournal.org/upload/pdf/asj-2025-0068.pdf |
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| _version_ | 1849733649656709120 |
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| author | Alex Kane Miller Matthew Stewart Easthardt Christopher Ryan Michel Daniel Kwangwon Park |
| author_facet | Alex Kane Miller Matthew Stewart Easthardt Christopher Ryan Michel Daniel Kwangwon Park |
| author_sort | Alex Kane Miller |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Study Design Cross-sectional social media content analysis. Purpose Patients increasingly rely on social media for education and perspectives regarding surgical care. Given the growing interest in endoscopic spine surgery, there is a need to critically evaluate related content available on social media. Overview of Literature While patient and surgeon engagement with spine surgery topics on social media has been explored, no previous study has specifically examined endoscopic spine surgery content on Twitter/X. Methods The Twitter/X website’s user-facing search functionality was used to compile tweets containing hashtags related to endoscopic spine surgery. The search spanned from the website’s inception to December 31, 2024. Tweets were categorized by authorship and location. Each tweet was independently analyzed by two reviewers to identify themes and contextual nature (educational vs. promotional). Results A total of 890 tweets from 199 accounts were analyzed. The majority of content (76.0%) originated from outside the United States. Medical doctors, doctors of osteopathy, and other healthcare providers authored 44.4% of the content. Patient-facing advertisements accounted for 24.5% of tweets. Approximately 22.1% of tweets contained content intended for healthcare professionals already familiar with endoscopic spine surgery, primarily highlighting conference/educational activities, research projects, or noteworthy cases. Conclusions A growing body of information related to endoscopic spine surgery is available on Twitter/X, though a large portion of this content consists of healthcare providers advertising to potential patients. Future research should prioritize identifying and analyzing patient perspectives on endoscopic spine surgery portrayed on social media platforms. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-645b6f751f4e4404b9be016a55503320 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 1976-1902 1976-7846 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-04-01 |
| publisher | Korean Spine Society |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Asian Spine Journal |
| spelling | doaj-art-645b6f751f4e4404b9be016a555033202025-08-20T03:07:58ZengKorean Spine SocietyAsian Spine Journal1976-19021976-78462025-04-0119216717510.31616/asj.2025.00681734The social media footprint of endoscopic spine surgery: a cross-sectional analysis of content on Twitter/XAlex Kane Miller0Matthew Stewart Easthardt1Christopher Ryan Michel2Daniel Kwangwon Park3 Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Corewell Health East William Beaumont University Hospital, Royal Oak, USA Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Corewell Health East William Beaumont University Hospital, Royal Oak, USA Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Corewell Health East William Beaumont University Hospital, Royal Oak, USA Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Corewell Health East William Beaumont University Hospital, Royal Oak, USAStudy Design Cross-sectional social media content analysis. Purpose Patients increasingly rely on social media for education and perspectives regarding surgical care. Given the growing interest in endoscopic spine surgery, there is a need to critically evaluate related content available on social media. Overview of Literature While patient and surgeon engagement with spine surgery topics on social media has been explored, no previous study has specifically examined endoscopic spine surgery content on Twitter/X. Methods The Twitter/X website’s user-facing search functionality was used to compile tweets containing hashtags related to endoscopic spine surgery. The search spanned from the website’s inception to December 31, 2024. Tweets were categorized by authorship and location. Each tweet was independently analyzed by two reviewers to identify themes and contextual nature (educational vs. promotional). Results A total of 890 tweets from 199 accounts were analyzed. The majority of content (76.0%) originated from outside the United States. Medical doctors, doctors of osteopathy, and other healthcare providers authored 44.4% of the content. Patient-facing advertisements accounted for 24.5% of tweets. Approximately 22.1% of tweets contained content intended for healthcare professionals already familiar with endoscopic spine surgery, primarily highlighting conference/educational activities, research projects, or noteworthy cases. Conclusions A growing body of information related to endoscopic spine surgery is available on Twitter/X, though a large portion of this content consists of healthcare providers advertising to potential patients. Future research should prioritize identifying and analyzing patient perspectives on endoscopic spine surgery portrayed on social media platforms.http://asianspinejournal.org/upload/pdf/asj-2025-0068.pdfsocial mediaendoscopictwitter |
| spellingShingle | Alex Kane Miller Matthew Stewart Easthardt Christopher Ryan Michel Daniel Kwangwon Park The social media footprint of endoscopic spine surgery: a cross-sectional analysis of content on Twitter/X Asian Spine Journal social media endoscopic |
| title | The social media footprint of endoscopic spine surgery: a cross-sectional analysis of content on Twitter/X |
| title_full | The social media footprint of endoscopic spine surgery: a cross-sectional analysis of content on Twitter/X |
| title_fullStr | The social media footprint of endoscopic spine surgery: a cross-sectional analysis of content on Twitter/X |
| title_full_unstemmed | The social media footprint of endoscopic spine surgery: a cross-sectional analysis of content on Twitter/X |
| title_short | The social media footprint of endoscopic spine surgery: a cross-sectional analysis of content on Twitter/X |
| title_sort | social media footprint of endoscopic spine surgery a cross sectional analysis of content on twitter x |
| topic | social media endoscopic |
| url | http://asianspinejournal.org/upload/pdf/asj-2025-0068.pdf |
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