The current usage of Instagram in neurosurgery

Abstract

Aim: Social media usage in healthcare is increasing exponentially. Instagram is a worldwide popular social media smartphone application (SPA) with personal and institutional accounts intended for patient education and publicity. Our aim is to evaluate the prevalence of neurosurgery on Instagram. Material and methods: The terms “#neurosurgery” and “#neurosurgeon” were searched on Instagram. The number of accounts, followers, posts as well as the content of these posts was evaluated. Results: One hundred twenty-three Instagram accounts were found in the search page and 113 of these accounts were public and therefore accessible for analysis. 36.1% of 113 accounts' posts were related to neurosurgery. The most common type of post was a case sample (83.5%), whereby most of these posts were photo images (72.01%). Conclusion: The rise of social media has allowed a new platform for communication between patients and neurosurgeons. Instagram can provide information to patients as well as educational support to those in neurosurgical training. © 2019