#NeuroTwitterNetwork #HowToNeuroTwitter Guide 2020-2021: Increasing Accessto Resources For #FutureNeurologists

ABSTRACT

Objective: To describe the growth of #HowToNeuroTwitter, a collaborative social media initiative orienting neurology residency applicants to Twitter as an educational and networking platform. Background: During the initial 6 months of the COVID-19 pandemic and the virtual residency interview season in 2020, a group of medical students, neurology residents, and fellows came together to create a #HowToNeuroTwitter guide and the #NeuroTwitterNetwork. With a continued virtual recruitment in 2021, the guide was expanded to provide more comprehensive and inclusive resources for all types of neurology applicants. Design/Methods: A group of 48 medical students, residents, fellows, and attendings created and promoted the updated guide between May 2021 - August 2021. Twitter was the primary method of promotion and recruitment. Based on feedback from the initial guide, we created new resources to include DO, IMG, and fellowship applicants in addition to residency resources. This was accomplished with the creation of topical subsections. Results: The comprehensive #HowToNeuroTwitter (bit.ly/NeuroTwitterNetwork2) guide was released on August 22nd, 2021 on Twitter, with a tweet that generated 91,082 impressions, 2,739 engagements, 1,137 link clicks to the guide, 180 likes, and 151 retweets as of October 4th, 2021. The guide was broken down into 12 sections including applying to residency, residency program twitter accounts, #MedEd resources, organizations to follow, the #NeuroTwitterNetwork database, child neurology resources, and more. Thirty organizations were catalogued, including subspecialty specific accounts, research journals, and national organizations. There were 111 adult neurology and 18 child neurology residency Twitter accounts included. Conclusions: The #HowToNeuroTwitter Guide 2.0 increased access to high yield information for medical students and residents applying to neurology by developing a centralized resource for trainees at all levels along with a diverse database of neurologists on Twitter.