Smartphones, Twitter and new learning opportunities at anaesthetic conferences

Smartphones and their apps are extremely popular with anaesthetists [1]. Smartphones were originally developed for communication; we now have the potential to use this technology for real-time, online discussion via social networking sites such as Twitter. Although most consider Twitter as a method of personal communication, it is now used widely in business and academia. Twitter has been used extensively at non-medical conferences for some time, and is now becoming more commonplace at medical meetings [2, 3]. Table 1 describes commonly used Twitter terminology. A hashtag “#AAGBIlinkman” was created for the 2011 Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland (AAGBI) Linkman conference in Edinburgh to determine whether spontaneous Twitter activity would result. Disappointingly, no Twitter activity was generated. Despite this lack of activity, a further Twitter hashtag was created for the AAGBI Annual Congress in Edinburgh: “#AAGBIcongress”. This time, spontaneous Twitter activity did result, and four people posted 36 tweets under the hashtag. Most were posted during the Congress itself, with a few before, and one after. Twenty-five (69%) of the tweets were used to post notes or learning points from lectures and workshops. Tweets were also used to describe plans to attend the meeting and the session being attended, to support colleagues who were speaking, and for social reasons. This activity demonstrates the potential to use Twitter at future anaesthetic conferences to enhance the experience not only of those at the conference but also those unable to attend. Despite the small numbers achieved, the pattern of tweeting followed the trends that have previously been reported at both medical and non-medical conferences. There are many other uses of Twitter at conferences, for both the organisers and the attendees, that could be adopted by anaesthetists [2–4]. Full engagement and promotion by the conference organisers would be required to achieve this potential. Conference organisers would have an obligation to educate participants regarding Twitter etiquette, protecting their personal identity as well as appropriate legal and ethical considerations.