The educational impact of the hashtag PathTweetAward on pathology from the perspective of medical students

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Introduction: Pathology is a field that extensively utilizes X, formerly Twitter, in education, communication, and collaboration. It is widely utilized by numerous professionals and trainees, such as medical students and residents, and uses many valuable hashtags. Using the hashtag PathTweetAward on platform X (formerly Twitter), outstanding tweets and posts can be tagged for consideration for an award known as #PathTweetAward. Aim: This study examined the impact of the #PathTweetAward on medical students, pathologists, pathology residents, and physicians in other specialties’ educational experience and the awareness of the award among educational social media users. Materials and Methods: The population surveyed comprised 80 of 84 full-time medical students and 4 of 84 physicians from different medical faculties in Turkiye. Since not enough physicians could be reached in the population, the data of 4 physicians were excluded from the study. Conclusions: Online and in-person surveys with Turkish medical students from various faculties found PathTwitter on X a great educational tool for students, residents, and pathologists. Furthermore, it is a valuable forum for expert discussions. Pathology uses X most in education, communication, and collaboration. Medical students and residents use its many hashtags. Despite its low prevalence, most #PathTweetAward users found it educational. Our findings are crucial to understanding social media’s educational potential. Our research shows that social media can help people learn and share, but #PathTweetAward needs more promotion. Social media and pathology education should be studied with larger groups and innovative tools like #PathTweetAward promoted.