Professional radiology organizations are using Twitter more than ever -- particularly interventional radiology groups, according to a letter to the editor published August 4 in Academic Radiology.
"To promote themselves, medical societies and organizations have ... increased their social of various social media platforms; this has been particularly seen in the increased Twitter use by diagnostic and interventional radiology community," wrote a team led by Tushar Garg, a medical student at Seth Gordhandas Sunderdas Medical College in Mumbai.
Garg and a colleague sought to evaluate professional radiology organizations' use of Twitter by day of the week. Mean number of tweets was higher during the workweek, the team found: Mean number of tweets Monday through Friday ranged from 473 to 478, with a high of 521 tweets on Thursday.
Of the professional radiology organizations evaluated, with the exception of one group, all released a comparable mean number of tweets in a week's time.
| Mean number of weekly tweets issued by radiology societies | |
| Radiology society | No. of weekly tweets |
| Society of Interventional Radiology | 455.9 |
| Radiological Society of North America | 455.7 |
| Royal College of Radiologists | 455.7 |
| European Society of Radiology | 456.3 |
| British Society of Interventional Radiology | 435.4 |
| Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology Society of Europe | 130.9 |
"As the popularity of social media grows and the number of active social media users increases, platforms like Twitter can be used to disseminate information to both patients and medical professionals," the team concluded. "Engagement of diagnostic and interventional radiology societies is essential to increase the awareness of the fields by engaging with the general public, patient advocacy groups, other specialties, and government health authorities."
