The use of social media is rapidly expanding. This technology revolution is changing the way healthcare providers share information with colleagues, patients, and other stakeholders. As social media use increases in urology, maintaining a professional online identity and interacting appropriately with one’s network are vital to engaging positively and protecting patient health information. There are many opportunities for collaboration and exchange of ideas, but pitfalls exist without adherence to proper online etiquette. The purpose of this article is to review professional guidelines on the use of social media in urology, and outline best practice principles that urologists and other healthcare providers can reference when engaging in online networks.
#EAU19 played host to the 7th BJUI Social Media Awards in Barcelona last week and it was the best fun yet!! From our humble beginnings in the back of an Irish Bar in San Diego in 2013, we have blossomed into a swish reception on a rooftop terrace at the Crowne Plaza in Barcelona. But the spirit remains the same – urologists and allied health practitioners with an interest in social media, gathering together to meet up in person and enjoy a fun evening.
We usually alternate the Awards between the annual congresses of the American Urological Association (AUA) and of the European Association of Urology (EAU), however we retained them in Europe for two years running this time as some of us are giving the AUA a skip. Apologies AUA friends, we will be back with you next year. However it is a measure of how the EAU Annual Congress has risen that so many US uro-twitterati were in attendance again this year. #EAU19 attracted about 13,000 people from more than 100 countries, including a very healthy gathering from my adopted home country of Australia.
On therefore to the Awards. These took place on Sunday 17th March 2019 in the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Barcelona. Over 75 of the most prominent uro-twitterati from all over the world turned up to enjoy the hospitality of the BJUI and to hear who would be recognised in the 2019 BJUI Social Media Awards. Individuals and organisations were recognised across 12 categories including the top gong, TheBJUI Social Media Award 2019, awarded to an individual, organization, innovation or initiative who has made an outstanding contribution to social media in urology in the preceding year. The 2013 Award was won by the outstanding Urology Match portal, followed in 2014 by Dr Stacy Loeb for her outstanding individual contributions, and in 2015 by the #UroJC twitter-based journal club. In 2017 we recognised the #ilooklikeaurologist social media campaign which we continue to promote, and in 2018 we recognised @BURSTurology. This year our Awards Committee consisted of members of the BJUI Editorial Board – Declan Murphy, Prokar Dasgupta, Matt Bultitude, and Stacy Loeb, as well as BJUI Managing Editor Scott Millar whose team in London drive the content across our social platforms. The Committee reviewed a huge range of materials and activity before reaching their final conclusions.
The full list of winners is as follows:
Most Read Blog@BJUI – “PRECISION delivers on the PROMIS of mpMRI in early detection of prostate cancer”. Awarded to myself!
Most Commented Blog@BJUI – “The future of Urological Surgical Training” – Dr Daron Smith, London, UK. Accepted by Matt Bultitude.
Best BJUI Tube Video – “Super‐mini percutaneous nephrolithotomy (SMP) vs retrograde intrarenal surgery for the treatment of 1–2 cm lower‐pole renal calculi: an international multicentre randomised controlled trial”. Accepted by the boss himself, Professor Guohua Zeng, Guangzhou, China.
Best Urology Conference for Social Media – awarded to the EAU for #EAU19. This is the fourth time EAU have scooped this!! Continuously raising their game in social media. Accepted by Prof Jim Catto on behalf of the EAU Communications Department.
Innovation Award – awarded to the #UroSoMe initiative, led by Dr Jeremy Teoh from Hong Kong. Outstanding campaign to bring the global uro-twitterati together.
Best Social Media Campaign – awarded to the “#RudeFood – food porn for a purpose” campaign led by @ANZUPtrials in Australia, and championed by a number of big-name celebrity chefs in Australia. It uses the visual power of food to draw attention to #BelowTheBelt cancers. Accepted by Niranjan Sathianathen on behalf of ANZUP.
Most Social Trainee – Awarded to Dr Daniel Christidis (1986-2018) . A very emotional award to recognise Dan, a most social trainee from Melbourne, tragically lost in a shark attack in November 2018. Collected by Sophie Rintoul-Hoad on behalf of his many friends around the world.
Best Urology Journal – Awarded to the BJUI, specifically to trainees Abdullatif Aydin and Becky Fisher for their beautiful Visual Abstracts.
Creativity Prize – Awarded to the @UroPoet #UroPoet initiative, introduced by Dr Brian Stork, and collected by his colleague from Michigan Dr Todd Morgan.
The BJUI Social Media Award 2019 – Awarded to Nature Reviews Urology to recognise their vision in commissioning the piece “Both Sides of the Scalpel”, with co-authors Stephen Fry (patient) and Ben Challacombe (surgeon) describing their respective experience of managing Stephen’s prostate cancer.
This story garnered worldwide attention due to the profile of Stephen Fry and his 12.7m Twitter followers. Editor-in-Chief Annette Fenner accepted the Award, along with Ben Challacombe and Stephen Fry who sent this personalized video message.
A special thanks to our outstanding BJUI team at BJUI in London, Scott Millar and team, who manage our social media and website activity as well as the day-to-day running of our busy journal.
See you all in Washington for #AUA20 where we will present the 8th BJUI Social Media Awards ceremony!
by Declan Murphy, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia
The early Sunday morning start did not deter delegates from attending one of the three packed plenary sessions of the day. They covered a broad range of rapidly changing areas in urology from imaging in prostate cancer, an update on renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and the breaking news session discussing the potentially game changing results from the recent ARAMIS study and new research into fast bi-parametric MRI. The role of imaging in prostate cancer is swiftly evolving, with the plenary discussion focusing on recent changes in the diagnostic pathway of localised prostate cancer, particularly with the use of MRI. Next door in the RCC plenary, the speakers debated ‘knife, needle or nothing?’ for the small renal mass in the young patient followed by an update on the very recent and potentially guideline-changing advances in systemic therapy for RCC.
The mid-morning thematic sessions covered the full spectrum of urology from semi-live surgery, the newest advances in immunotherapy, imaging and even how to run a urology office in Europe.
The 7th BJUI social media awards on Sunday night were again the social highlight of the EAU. A view of the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya provided a stunning backdrop to the packed event, with the stars of #UroSoMe recognised for their outstanding work. The night kicked off with the award for the most read blog going to social media champion Professor Declan Murphy.
The awards highlighted the far reaching and valuable impact of social media, recognising a number of important achievements in the field such as Nature Reviews Urology for ‘Both sides of the scalpel: the patient and surgeon view’ with a special guest video appearance from Stephen Fry.
Massive thanks @BJUIjournal for the award for @benchallacombe & @stephenfry's article. Huge surprise &the special video from Stephen was amazing 😭. It's been an honour& I'm so proud to have produced something that has had such a positive impact. That's it; I've peaked. #eau19pic.twitter.com/7cb6NEiqYY
— Nette Fenner is in the shed (@NetteFenner) March 18, 2019
However, for me the most special part of the night was seeing my friend Daniel Christidis remembered and honoured with the most ‘social’ trainee award. Dan was a leader in the real and #UroSoMe world (and had personally set up my Twitter account, and those of many of the other young attendees that night) and I know would have been proud to be remembered for one of the things he did so well.
After the BJUI social media awards, it was time for a little black-tie glamour with the EAU19 Friendship Dinner at the historical Casa Llotja de Mar. The night started with a welcome from Professor Christopher Chapple underlining the importance of international partnerships in urology, followed by a fantastic night of good food, wine and enjoying the beautiful Catalan Gothic architecture.
Professor Chris Chapple, Secretary General of the EAU, highlights international collaboration in urology at the friendship dinner. #EAU19pic.twitter.com/0WrbUsBkcm
The Monday morning plenary sessions delivered another jam-packed morning of a mix of cutting-edge science, quality of life issues in cancer survivorship and prostate cancer. The breaking news session discussed the primary results from SAUL, confirming tolerability and safety of atezolizumab in real-world mUC patients, and the results of ARCHES, which investigated the efficacy of androgen deprivation therapy with enzalutamide or placebo in metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer. The controversies in prostate cancer were again debated in an interactive and diverse way between ‘jury members’ including a geriatrician, psychologist, radiation oncologist and urologist.
The last day of the thematic sessions of the congress again provided a smorgasbord of topics in urology. Later in the day, the expert-guided poster tours gave delegates a chance to navigate the huge number of posters from guidelines to local treatment of prostate cancer.
The closing plenary on Tuesday morning to a full auditorium gave a sweeping overview of the top contributions to EAU19 leaving us with a free half day to explore our generous host city and take in the stunning architecture, food and sunshine!
Bustling Barcelona provided the perfect backdrop to a well organised, action packed conference which featured world leading urologists and scientists from around the world presenting practice changing new data. Cannot wait for EAU 2020 in Amsterdam! #EAU20 #Amsterdam #UroSoMe
by Jiasian Teh, Urology Registrar, PhD Candidate, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
I had been using Twitter for a while but I never experienced the true power of this social media platform. It was a cold call from @VerranDeborah and @juliomayol when I started to notice the hashtag #SoMe4Surgery. I was pleasantly surprised and impressed by the active engagement of the #SoMe4Surgery participants. After participating in a #SoMe4Surgery live conversation event on #surgicalinfection, I finally realized the potential impact of a simple hashtag.
While I was amazed by how #SoMe4Surgery brought the surgical community together, many of the topics being discussed were not entirely relevant or specific to a urologist per se. I felt the need of a hashtag specific to Urology, and I quickly started to conceptualize and plan ahead in building up the #UroSoMe community. The #UroSoMe twitter account was officially registered in August 2018.
#UroSoMe stands for ‘Urology Social Media’. My initial thought about #UroSoMe was simple. I wanted to develop a hashtag specific to urology. I wanted to increase public awareness about different urological conditions. Most importantly, I wanted to bring the urology community closer together through this social media platform. I believe there is so much for us to learn from each other, and such interactions should never be bounded by physical or geographical restrictions. Coincidentally, I was invited to talk about social media at the 27th Malaysian Urological Conference 2018, and I decided to take this opportunity to introduce #UroSoMe to the urology community.
The initial response from the audience was promising. Even after the meeting, many urologists came to me for in-depth discussions about the opportunities and applications of social media in urology. I felt that #UroSoMe might really work and it was time to gather more people to establish the community. The first invitation sent in on 14 December 2018, which I often regard as the ‘start date’ of the #UroSoMe community.
By inviting and encouraging people around to use a common hashtag, the #UroSoMe community keeps growing. With increasing momentum, the first #LiveCaseDiscussions was planned. It was a pre-planned event for urologists to get ‘online’ and discuss about some posted cases. A polling had been held in advance, and the topic to be discussed was chosen to be ‘Stone’.
The #LiveCaseDiscussions was on air at 4pm (CET) on 5 January 2019. A total of 9 cases had been presented and discussed. Hosting this event was overwhelming with vigorous discussions among the participants. It took approximately 2 hours to ‘complete’ the event, but the conversations went on for the next few days. Special thanks must be given to the most active users. #UroSoMe and the first #LiveCaseDiscussions would never be successful without their tremendous support.
The immediate effect of the #UroSoMe #LiveCaseDiscussions event was overwhelming. This graph represents a network of 515 twitter users whose tweets contained the hashtag #UroSoMe. 6692 mentions, 1044 retweets and 617 replies were recorded within a 10-day period from 27 December 2018 to 6 January 2019. From a social science point of view, this picture represents a ‘tight crowd’, in which discussions are characterized by highly interconnected people with few isolated participants. I guess this is exactly how we feel about the urology community!
Apart from #LiveCaseDiscussions, the #UroSoMe working group is also keen to host events including #LiveForum, #LiveJournalClub and #LiveTeaching. This is only the beginning of #UroSoMe and we believe there is huge potential to be explored. It is only with your support that #UroSoMe can continue to grow. We look forward to meeting you on Twitter and,
hopefully, at #EAU19 and #AUA19 as well!
P.S. I must thank @juliomayol for the inspiration of #UroSoMe, @gmacscotland for his teaching on social media analytics, and @marc_smith for his support in NodeXL.
About the author:
Jeremy Teoh (@jteoh_hk) is a Urologist based in Hong Kong, China.
