Patient Referrals for Hernia Consultations through the International Hernia Collaboration (IHC) Online Social Media Platform.

ABSTRACT

Social media platforms are becoming more ubiquitous in surgery with a mission to bring surgeons closer together through education and learning. The purpose of this project is to evaluate the social media posts relating to referral of patients through one of the online social media platforms. The International Hernia Collaboration closed Facebook site was queried with terms relating to referrals and descriptive statistics generated. There were a total of 36 posts relating to surgical referrals between October 2014 and January 2021. Posts were from 32 different surgeons and included 30 different locations throughout the United States. An online social media platform is a viable way to refer patients throughout the United States and abroad. Further study is needed to evaluate the role of social media for surgical referrals and its impact on patient care.