Creating Effective Infographics and Visual Abstracts to Disseminate Research and Facilitate Medical Education on Social Media

Presenting information in a visual format helps viewers digest complex concepts in an efficient, effective manner. Recently, infographics have been used on social media and other digital platforms to educate health professionals, trainees, and patients about medical and public health topics. In addition, visual abstracts, visual representations of a research article's written abstract, have been increasingly used to disseminate new research findings to other health professionals. In this review article, we will define infographics and visual abstracts, describe why they are useful, outline how to create them, and explain how researchers, educators, and clinicians can use them effectively. We share resources and a stepwise approach that allows readers to create their own infographics and visual abstracts for research dissemination, medical education, and patient communication.