July 2018
Volume 59, Issue 9
Open Access
ARVO Annual Meeting Abstract  |   July 2018
Academic Ophthalmology Departments and their use of Facebook, Instagram and Twitter Social Media Pages
Author Affiliations & Notes
  • Robert F. Melendez
    Surgery/Ophthalmology, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque , New Mexico, United States
    Eye Associates of NM, Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States
  • Pavan Angadi
    Ophthalmology, Howard University, Washington, District of Columbia, United States
    Surgery/Ophthalmology, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque , New Mexico, United States
  • Elisabeth Sledz
    Surgery/Ophthalmology, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque , New Mexico, United States
  • Gabriella Acosta
    Surgery/Ophthalmology, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque , New Mexico, United States
  • Marisa Griego
    Surgery/Ophthalmology, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque , New Mexico, United States
  • Mingma Sherpa
    Surgery/Ophthalmology, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque , New Mexico, United States
  • Christine Teng
    Surgery/Ophthalmology, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque , New Mexico, United States
  • Footnotes
    Commercial Relationships   Robert Melendez, Social Media Page Creators (I); Pavan Angadi, None; Elisabeth Sledz, None; Gabriella Acosta, None; Marisa Griego, None; Mingma Sherpa, None; Christine Teng, None
  • Footnotes
    Support  None
Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science July 2018, Vol.59, 6172. doi:
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      Robert F. Melendez, Pavan Angadi, Elisabeth Sledz, Gabriella Acosta, Marisa Griego, Mingma Sherpa, Christine Teng; Academic Ophthalmology Departments and their use of Facebook, Instagram and Twitter Social Media Pages. Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 2018;59(9):6172.

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      © ARVO (1962-2015); The Authors (2016-present)

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Abstract

Purpose : With the growing presence of social media, this study was undertaken to determine how many academic ophthalmology departments are using social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Methods : A review of the 118 academic ophthalmology departments was performed in November 2017 to identify which programs have a Facebook page. The number of likes were identified as well as the rating for each page. The names of the academic ophthalmology departments were retrieved from the San Francisco Match program website. The main hospital’s Facebook page that was affiliated with the department was also identified including the number of likes and their rating score. Instagram and Twitter pages were reviewed to determine how many ophthalmology departments are active on these pages as well as the number of followers and followings.

Results : Out of the 118 academic ophthalmology departments, 34% (40/118) have a Facebook page. The average number of likes that each program had on Facebook was 1136 (range 0 to 73,771 likes/page). The average number of likes for their main hospital page was 73,748 (range 100 to 2,088,008 likes/page). The average rating on Facebook was 4.37 stars for ophthalmology departments whereas for their main hospital page it was 4.41 stars. The number of academic ophthalmology departments with an Instagram page was 4% (5/118) and the average number of followers and followings were 113 and 70, respectively. The number of academic ophthalmology departments with a Twitter page was 23% (27/118) and the average number of followers and followings were 284 and 97, respectively.

Conclusions : About 34% of academic ophthalmology departments are actively involved on Facebook with an average number of likes of 1098 and an average rating score of 4.37 stars. When we looked at their respective hospital Facebook pages, we found that 65% had a Facebook page with an average of 73,748 likes and an average rating of 4.41 stars. Interestingly, the departments with a named institute had a Facebook Page over 96% of the time. Very few programs were actively involved on Instagram (5%) and more on Twitter at 23% of departments. Of the departments who are actively involved, we will highlight examples of how they are using social media effectively to educate the public and fellow physicians.

This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.

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