Twitter chats: 21st century CME

- Jennifer Middleton, MD, MPH

Being active on Twitter can have many advantages for family physicians. Following journals like AFP (@AFPJournal) can make it easy to keep up with the latest medical studies and news. With individual tweets limited to 140 characters, Twitter chats provide a way to explore a particular issue more in-depth and build connections among people with common interests. Increasingly, they can also be a way to increase physician knowledge and even obtain continuing medical education (CME) credit.

Typically, Twitter chats occur at a scheduled time, last for about an hour, and are moderated by one or a few members of the hosting organization. The topic for discussion is determined in advance, and the moderators usually prepare questions to ask participants throughout the hour. Participants can tweet responses to the questions - and to each other's responses - during the hour, and the conversation can be reviewed later by searching for the chat's hashtag. You can see an example of a Twitter chat here.

Several medical journals and organizations are using Twitter chats (or virtual journal clubs, as some journals prefer to call them) to engage with their members. The Annals of Family Medicine and the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine host regular Twitter chats covering a variety of clinical and educational topics pertinent to Family Medicine. In other specialties, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, American College of Chest Physicians, Annals of Emergency Medicine, and the Society of Hospital Medicine all host or have hosted Twitter chats.

Using Twitter for medical education can have tangible benefits. Medical students who participated in Twitter activities relating to biomedical science studies had higher grades than those who did not. Medical students who participated in Twitter activities related to gross anatomy classes reported better communication with faculty, higher morale, and less anxiety. A general surgery program used a competitive Twitter microblogging project to improve their residents' in-training exam scores. An Australian research group found that online CME using Twitter and other social media platforms was perceived as more cost effective for physicians compared to attending live CME conferences.

Last year, AFP hosted its first Twitter chat, and this year, on July 9, we'll host our first Twitter chat for CME credit on the topic of antibiotic overuse. You can claim 4 hours of CME credit for participating; the chat will be 1 hour, and the additional 3 hours are allotted for the preparation time to read the articles. You can download the articles we'll be covering, learn more about the basics of a Twitter chat, and register here. If you have questions about how to get involved, you can tweet @AFPJournal or email afpedit@aafp.org.

What benefits or barriers do you see to using Twitter for CME?