Social media in dermatologya study about how to visibilize evidence-based channels, through a real-life experience

Abstract

The presence of dermatological information on the internet has grown exponentially over the last two decades. In recent years, that growth has mostly occurred in social media platforms. This has risen concerns about the quality of this information, which many studies have proven to be misleading or even harmful. The reason is mainly that most content is produced by individuals without any dermatological training. Although social media use is becoming increasingly prevalent amongst dermatologists, it is still a controversial practice. The main concerns are patient confidentiality, and legal and ethical issues. This background raises the following questions: What are all the advantages of social media use by dermatologists? What are the drawbacks of these platforms? How can we optimize the performance of a real-life dermatologist profiles on social media? Gaining deeper insights on all these matters is critical for developing a successful approach for dermatological presence on social media. The aim of this thesis is to provide answers to these research questions. As an initial theoretical approximation to the problem, the first part of this thesis consists on a systematic review of the literature that assembles the benefits, drawbacks and challenges that social media platforms present for dermatologists. A comprehensive systematic review was performed, dating from inception to July 2021. Fifteen benefits, eleven drawbacks and ten challenges of social media use in dermatology were identified and discussed. Suggested strategies to address the identified drawbacks were provided. The remaining issues were addressed empirically. An educational dermatological YouTube channel was launched, designed to avoid the risks and ethical challenges that social media involves for dermatologists. After a three-year period, the channel has reached over 355,000 subscribers and 21 million views. As the limited presence of dermatologists on social media has been criticized for focusing on cosmetic dermatology, the first experiment of this thesis was designed to find out whether there was a difference in the visibility of topics related to cosmetic dermatology and topics related to the medical fields of dermatology. For that purpose, the 101 videos published in a two-year period were divided into cosmetic and medical dermatology. Medical dermatology videos were then classified into three categories: Acne, other facial dermatoses and other dermatological diseases. A Kruskal-Wallis test was used to compare these three categories and cosmetic dermatology. Cosmetic dermatology and acne were found to generate significantly more views that other dermatological diseases. The second experiment of this thesis was designed to gain insight on how to optimize the performance of dermatological content on social media. To successfully perform dermatological health promotion, dermatologists should create content that retains the public s attention. Consequently, this experiment focused on audience retention on YouTube and its explanatory factors. YouTube presents information on audience retention in the form of a graph. Interestingly, the middle section of the graph may show some spikes and dips. Spikes appear when viewers focus on specific parts of the video, which justifies closer examination. Data from the 137 videos published during the studied period was included. The spikes of all the videos included in the study were identified, and their content was analysed to determine what was particularly interesting for viewers. As the videos were educational, spikes were classified into conceptual or procedural knowledge. Video length and days from release had a negative effect on audience retention. Spikes were observed in 76 videos, which were mostly classified as procedural. This thesis encompasses the first research about dermatology on social media that uses a broad-scale primary source. It has provided answers to gaps identified in the previous literature, and has supplied resources to optimize health promotion performed by dermatologists on social media.