Breaking New Ground "Medical Education" on Twitter: A Social Network Analysis Retrospective (Preprint)

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BACKGROUND Social media are an integral part of the modern lifestyle and the digital learning environment in medical education is flourishing with cutting-edge social network technologies. Currently, there is scarce data and research about the use of social media and the role of Twitter use in medical education. OBJECTIVE This study will examine the different forms of social organization, establish the top opinion leaders, and explore the sub-clusters existing regarding “Medical Education” on the Twitter network. METHODS This study retrieved Twitter data on 7th January 2023 by using the keywords “Medical Education”. To achieve the objectives, this study used NodeXL to analyze the results. RESULTS We found that the top opinion leader (vertex) “Msblairewhite” had the highest in-betweenness centrality and in-degree centrality and is determined as an influencing leader in medical education. “Peaceahead” had the out-degree centrality for networks. Although Msblairewhite had the highest in-betweenness centrality, “elonmusk” had the maximum number of followers. This indicates that the vertex having maximum influence with the largest number of in-betweenness centrality has not linked with several followers. CONCLUSIONS Twitter has great potential to transform pedagogy in medical education. However, there must be a structured way to engage the medical education community to stay active on Twitter by creating specific pages linked to Health Professional Education. This study’s most discussed topics and trends are related to the healthcare system, common community-based issues, and communicable diseases. There is a wide gap in discussion on Twitter related to medical curriculum reforms, pedagogical techniques, technology-enhanced learning, clinical teaching skills, simulations, and faculty development. CLINICALTRIAL none