What role should social media play in the future of acute medicine?

ABSTRACT

The screen time app on my iPhone tells me that I spend over ten hours a week on Twitter. And I'm not alone. As Netflix's The Social Dilemma illustrated, social media platforms are designed to keep us scrolling for hours, even if we only opened the app for a second. Thousands of UK healthcare workers use Twitter every day, discussing everything from cutting edge COVID treatments to staff room fridge etiquette. As strange as it sounds, this esoteric little corner of the internet - affectionately if unoriginally nicknamed "MedTwitter" - has become a thriving online community.