JAMIA: Which docs are most hip to social media?
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Physician specialty, practice setting, years in practice, average number of patients treated per week and number of physicians in practice were found to be inconsistently associated or unassociated with use of the technologies examined by Crystale Purvis Cooper, PhD, a researcher at the Soltera Center for Cancer Prevention and Control in Tucson, Ariz., and colleagues. Demographic characteristics, rather than practice-related characteristics, were more consistent predictors of physician use of seven internet-based communication technologies with varying levels of uptake.
Cooper et al investigated the demographic and practice-related characteristics of U.S. physicians who used seven internet-based communication technologies—social networking websites, portable devices to access the internet, email communication to patients, podcasts, widgets, RSS feeds and blogging.
The researchers analyzed data from the 2009 DocStyles survey, which included 1,750 physicians in five specialties—family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics/gynecology and dermatology. DocStyles is an annual web-based survey that investigates the attitudes and clinical practices of U.S. physicians and allied health professionals.
The majority of participants were male (68 percent) and worked in group practices (64 percent).
Reported technology use during the last six months ranged from 81 percent using a portable device to access the internet to 13 percent writing a blog. Use of the remaining technologies in descending order was social networking websites (59 percent), email to communicate with patients (49 percent), podcasts (41 percent), widgets (22 percent) and RSS feeds (19 percent).
Across the technologies modeled, the most consistent predictors of use were being male (associated with use of six technologies), younger age (associated with use of three technologies) and having privileges at a teaching hospital (associated with use of three technologies). "The consistency of predictors, particularly in the case of gender, is interesting, given that use ranged from near saturation (81 percent reported having accessed the internet through a portable device) to fledging (13 percent reported having written a blog)," the authors wrote.
"While the odds of using the technologies examined consistently decreased as age increased in the general population, this was not always the case among physicians in our study," Cooper and colleagues wrote. "For instance, physicians aged 35-44 years old had higher odds of reporting use of portable devices to access the internet and widgets than those younger than 35 years of age. These differences are not surprising given that physician use of internet-based communication technologies typically far exceeds mainstream use. In addition, physicians systematically differ from the general adult population: they have higher educational attainment and incomes; they are more likely to be male; and 26 years is typically the minimum age, given the training requirements."
Cooper et al concluded that their results may guide the development of provider-targeted communication initiatives as well as investigations of the clinical implications of physician use of the technologies studied. "However, physician use of some internet-based communication technologies has expanded rapidly, and the characteristics of users may change as uptake increases and technologies evolve."
Beth Walsh,
Editor
Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.