Eyeworld

136 | EYEWORLD | APRIL 2019 I by Maxine Lipner EyeWorld Senior Contributing Writer N THE PRACTICE Contact information Al-Mohtaseb: zaina@bcm.edu T hese days, social media use is ubiquitous, and ophthalmology is no exception. In a recent study 1 , investigators delved into how ophthalmic practitioners and LASIK patients are using this. Zaina Al-Mohtaseb, MD, and co-in- vestigators set out to determine how doctors, patients, and academic eye centers use social media with regard to ophthalmology. "We specifically wanted to investigate LASIK because it's a common procedure among social media's highest users, the 18- to 34-year-old demograph- ic," she said. Analyzing LASIK posts When investigators searched for LASIK, they found more than 10,000 posts. Other ophthal- mology-related terms, such as #retinasurgery or #cataractsurgery, had fewer than 1,000 posts. Dr. Al-Mohtaseb attributes this to the nature of LASIK. "People love to share exciting events in their life, and LASIK is a life-changing procedure that everyone wants to talk about," she said. The idea was to study trends and see what was asso- ciated with positive patient experiences to allow for more effective social media engagement with future patients. Investigators used a social media search engine, looking for the term #lasiksurgery. They analyzed 2,592 Instagram posts from individuals who underwent LASIK between August 2016 and April 2017. Patient use of social media was their primary outcome. "Our secondary outcomes were social media use among ophthalmologists and academic eye centers," Dr. Al-Mohtaseb said. "We searched extensively to find personal social media accounts from ophthalmologists identified as the Top 40 Under 40 ophthalmologists from The Ophthalmol- ogist and others who were active in attending con- ferences." In addition, investigators used Doximi- ty ratings to find the top 30 academic centers and perused their social media accounts. "Surprisingly, Twitter was much more popular among oph- thalmologists and eye centers," Dr. Al-Mohtaseb said. "We could only find a handful of Instagram accounts for these groups and therefore did not have enough to analyze." Investigators then analyzed the patients' posts based on content. For example, what was being posted, a picture or a video? Were patients focusing on what their eyes looked like or what they were seeing? What postoperative concerns did they have? For ophthalmologists, investigators char- acterized their last 40 tweets to see what they were tweeting about on personal accounts, Dr. Al-Mohtaseb said. For academic centers, investi- gators looked at how they were interacting with their followers. Investigators determined that 92% of patients using the LASIK hashtag posted pho- tographs. Of these, 88% had a positive tone and 62% referenced the clinic where they were treated, with 44% posting on the day of the pro- cedure. "They also posted about not needing to wear glasses or contacts," Dr. Al-Mohtaseb said. Perusing ophthalmologists' feeds Ophthalmologists' personal tweets focused on research conferences 35% of the time, personal topics 25%, and accomplishments of others 21%. Institutions posted content related to their own promotion 22% of the time, physician accom- plishments 20%, and research publications 19%. On Instagram and Twitter feeds, many oph- thalmologists have patients on the top of their minds. "Most are sharing successful cases and Ophthalmologists tap into social platforms Investigators found more than 10,000 posts from LASIK patients about their experience. Source: Zaina Al-Mohtaseb, MD continued on page 138 About the doctor Zaina Al-Mohtaseb, MD Assistant professor of ophthalmology Baylor College of Medicine Houston Reference 1. Clarke C, et al. Social media and ophthalmology: Perspectives of patients and ophthalmologists. J Med Syst. 2018;42;258. Financial interests Al-Mohtaseb: Alcon, Bausch + Lomb, Johnson & Johnson Vision, Carl Zeiss Meditec

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