The Adoption of an Online Journal Club to Improve Research Dissemination and Social Media Engagement Among Hospitalists
BACKGROUND: Twitter-based journal clubs are intended to connect clinicians, educators, and researchers to discuss recent research and aid in dissemination of results. The Journal of Hospital Medicine (JHM) began producing a Twitter-based journal club, #JHMChat, in 2015.
OBJECTIVE: To describe the implementation and assess the impact of a journal-sponsored, Twitter-based journal club on Twitter and journal metrics.
INTERVENTION: Each #JHMChat focused on a recently published JHM article, was moderated by a social media editor, and included one study author or guest.
MEASUREMENTS: The total number of participants, tweets, tweets/participant, impressions, page views, and change in the Altmetric score were assessed after each session. Thematic analysis of each article was conducted, and post-chat surveys of participating authors and participant responses to continuing medical education surveys were reviewed.
RESULTS: Seventeen Twitter-based chats were held: 7 (47%) focused on value, 6 (40%) targeted clinical issues, and 4 (27%) focused on education. On average, we found 2.17 (±0.583 SD) million impressions/session, 499 (±129 SD) total tweets/session, and 73 (±24 SD) participants/session. Value-based care articles had the greatest number of impressions (2.61 ± 0.55 million) and participants (90 ± 12). The mean increase in the Altmetric score was 14 points (±12), with medical education-themed articles garnering the greatest change (mean increase of 32). Page views were noted to have increased similarly to levels of electronic Table of Content releases. Authors and participants believed #JHMChat was a valuable experience and rated it highly on post-chat evaluations.
CONCLUSION: Online journal clubs appear to increase awareness and uptake of journal article results and are considered a useful tool by participants.
© 2018 Society of Hospital Medicine
CONCLUSION
Online journal clubs create new opportunities to connect, engage, and disseminate medical research. These developing forums provide journal editors, researchers, patients, and clinicians with a means to connect and discuss research in ways that were not previously possible. In order to continue to evolve and grow, future research in online journal clubs should explore the downstream effects on citation rates, clinical uptake, and participant knowledge after the sessions.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Felicia Steele for her assistance in organizing and promoting the chats. Additionally, the authors would like to thank all the authors, guests and participants who took time from their families, work, and daily lives to participate in these activities. Your time and presence were truly appreciated.
Disclosures
The authors of this article operate as the Social Media Editors (C.M.W., V.M.A.) and the Editor-in-Chief (A.A.) for the Journal of Hospital Medicine. Dr. Wray had full access to all the data in the project, takes responsibility for the integrity of the data, and the accuracy of the data analysis.
