The influence of social media on recruitment to surgical trials

Carly Nichola Bisset, Ben Carter, Jennifer Law, Jonathan Hewitt, Kat Parmar, Susan Joan Moug, ELF Study Group Collaborative Authorship, Bryony Ross, Julia Oleksiewicz, Nicola Fearnhead, Christopher Jump, Jemma Boyle, Alex Shaw, Jonathan Barker, Jane Hughes, Jonathan Randall, Isileli Tonga, James Kynaston, Matthew Boal, Nicola Eardley, Elizabeth Kane, Harriet Reader, Sunanda Roy Mahapatra, Michael Garner-Jones, Jessica Juliana Tan, Said Mohamed, Rina George, Ed Whiteman, Kamran Malik, Christopher J Smart, Monica Bogdan, Madhu Parna Chaudhury, Videha Sharma, Daren Subar, Panna Patel, Sok-Moi Chok, Evelyn Lim, Vedamurthy Adhiyaman, Glesni Davies, Ellen Ross, Rudra Maitra, Colin W Steele, Campbell Roxburgh, Shelly Griffiths, Natalie S Blencowe, Emily N Kirkham, John S Abraham, Kirsty Griffiths, Yasser Abdulaal, Muhammad Rafaih Iqbal, Munir Tarazi, James Hill, Azam Khan, Ian Farrell, Gemma Conn, Jugal Patel, Hyder Reddy, Janahan Sarveswaran, Lakshmanan Arunachalam, Afaq Malik, Luca Ponchietti, Krystian Pawelec, Yan Mei Goh, Parveen Vitish-Sharma, Ahmed Saad, Edward Smyth, Amy Crees, Louise Merker, Nahida Bashir, Gethin Williams, Jennifer Hayes, Kelly Walters, Rhiannon Harries, Rahulpreet Singh, Nikola A Henderson, Francesco M Polignano, Ben Knight, Louise Alder, Alexandra Kenchington, Yan Li Goh, Ilaria Dicurzio, Ewen Griffiths, Ahmed Alani, Katrina Knight, Patrick MacGoey, Guat Shi Ng, Naomi Mackenzie, Ishaan Maitra, Susan Moug, Kelly Ong, Daniel McGrath, Emanuele Gammeri, Guillame Lafaurie, Gemma Faulkner, Gabriele Di Benedetto, Julia McGovern, Bharathi Subramanian, Sunil Kumar Narang, Jennifer Nowers, Neil J Smart, Ian R Daniels, Massimo Varcada, Tanzeela Gala, Julie Cornish, Zoe Barber, Stephen O'Neill, Richard McGregor, Andrew G Robertson, Simon Paterson-Brown, Thomas Raymond, Mohamed A Thaha, William J English, Cillian T Forde, Heidi Paine, Alpa Morawala, Ravindra Date, Patrick Casey, Thomas Bolton, Xuan Gleaves, Joshua Fasuyi, Sanja Durakovic, Matt Dunstan, Sophie Allen, Angela Riga, Jonathan Epstein, Lyndsay Pearce, Emily Gaines, Anthony Howe, Halima Choonara, Ffion Dewi, Joanne Bennett, Emile King, Kathryn McCarthy, Greg Taylor, Dean Harris, Hari Nageswaran, Amy Stimpson, Kamran Siddiqui, Lay In Lim, Christopher Ray, Laura Smith, Gillian McColl, Mohammed Rahman, Aaron Kler, Abhi Sharma, Kat Parmar, Neil Patel, Perry Crofts, Claudio Baldari, Rhys Thomas, Michael Stechman, Roland Aldridge, James O'Kelly, Graeme Wilson, Nicholas Gallegos, Ramya Kalaiselvan, Rajasundaram Rajaganeshan, Aliya Mackenzie, Prashant Naik, Kaushiki Singh, Harinath Gandraspulli, Jeremy Wilson, Kate Hancorn, Amir Khawaja, Felix Nicholas, Thomas Marks, Cameron Abbott, Susan Chandler, Carly Nichola Bisset, Ben Carter, Jennifer Law, Jonathan Hewitt, Kat Parmar, Susan Joan Moug, ELF Study Group Collaborative Authorship, Bryony Ross, Julia Oleksiewicz, Nicola Fearnhead, Christopher Jump, Jemma Boyle, Alex Shaw, Jonathan Barker, Jane Hughes, Jonathan Randall, Isileli Tonga, James Kynaston, Matthew Boal, Nicola Eardley, Elizabeth Kane, Harriet Reader, Sunanda Roy Mahapatra, Michael Garner-Jones, Jessica Juliana Tan, Said Mohamed, Rina George, Ed Whiteman, Kamran Malik, Christopher J Smart, Monica Bogdan, Madhu Parna Chaudhury, Videha Sharma, Daren Subar, Panna Patel, Sok-Moi Chok, Evelyn Lim, Vedamurthy Adhiyaman, Glesni Davies, Ellen Ross, Rudra Maitra, Colin W Steele, Campbell Roxburgh, Shelly Griffiths, Natalie S Blencowe, Emily N Kirkham, John S Abraham, Kirsty Griffiths, Yasser Abdulaal, Muhammad Rafaih Iqbal, Munir Tarazi, James Hill, Azam Khan, Ian Farrell, Gemma Conn, Jugal Patel, Hyder Reddy, Janahan Sarveswaran, Lakshmanan Arunachalam, Afaq Malik, Luca Ponchietti, Krystian Pawelec, Yan Mei Goh, Parveen Vitish-Sharma, Ahmed Saad, Edward Smyth, Amy Crees, Louise Merker, Nahida Bashir, Gethin Williams, Jennifer Hayes, Kelly Walters, Rhiannon Harries, Rahulpreet Singh, Nikola A Henderson, Francesco M Polignano, Ben Knight, Louise Alder, Alexandra Kenchington, Yan Li Goh, Ilaria Dicurzio, Ewen Griffiths, Ahmed Alani, Katrina Knight, Patrick MacGoey, Guat Shi Ng, Naomi Mackenzie, Ishaan Maitra, Susan Moug, Kelly Ong, Daniel McGrath, Emanuele Gammeri, Guillame Lafaurie, Gemma Faulkner, Gabriele Di Benedetto, Julia McGovern, Bharathi Subramanian, Sunil Kumar Narang, Jennifer Nowers, Neil J Smart, Ian R Daniels, Massimo Varcada, Tanzeela Gala, Julie Cornish, Zoe Barber, Stephen O'Neill, Richard McGregor, Andrew G Robertson, Simon Paterson-Brown, Thomas Raymond, Mohamed A Thaha, William J English, Cillian T Forde, Heidi Paine, Alpa Morawala, Ravindra Date, Patrick Casey, Thomas Bolton, Xuan Gleaves, Joshua Fasuyi, Sanja Durakovic, Matt Dunstan, Sophie Allen, Angela Riga, Jonathan Epstein, Lyndsay Pearce, Emily Gaines, Anthony Howe, Halima Choonara, Ffion Dewi, Joanne Bennett, Emile King, Kathryn McCarthy, Greg Taylor, Dean Harris, Hari Nageswaran, Amy Stimpson, Kamran Siddiqui, Lay In Lim, Christopher Ray, Laura Smith, Gillian McColl, Mohammed Rahman, Aaron Kler, Abhi Sharma, Kat Parmar, Neil Patel, Perry Crofts, Claudio Baldari, Rhys Thomas, Michael Stechman, Roland Aldridge, James O'Kelly, Graeme Wilson, Nicholas Gallegos, Ramya Kalaiselvan, Rajasundaram Rajaganeshan, Aliya Mackenzie, Prashant Naik, Kaushiki Singh, Harinath Gandraspulli, Jeremy Wilson, Kate Hancorn, Amir Khawaja, Felix Nicholas, Thomas Marks, Cameron Abbott, Susan Chandler

Abstract

Background: Social media has changed the way surgeons communicate worldwide, particularly in dissemination of trial results. However, it is unclear if social media could be used in recruitment to surgical trials. This study aimed to investigate the influence of Twitter in promoting surgical recruitment in The Emergency Laparotomy and Frailty (ELF) Study.

Methods: The ELF Study was a UK-based, prospective, observational cohort that aimed to assess the influence of frailty on 90-day mortality in older adults undergoing emergency surgery. A power calculation required 500 patients to be recruited to detect a 10% change in mortality associated with frailty. A 12-week recruitment period was selected, calculated from information submitted by participating hospitals and the numbers of emergency surgeries performed in adults aged > 65 years. A Twitter handle was designed (@ELFStudy) with eye-catching logos to encourage enrolment and inform the public and clinicians involved in the study. Twitter Analytics and Twitonomy (Digonomy Pty Ltd) were used to analyse user engagement in relation to patient recruitment.

Results: After 90 days of data collection, 49 sites from Scotland, England and Wales recruited 952 consecutive patients undergoing emergency laparotomy, with data logged into a database created on REDCap. Target recruitment (n = 500) was achieved by week 11. A total of 591 tweets were published by @ELFStudy since its conception, making 218,136 impressions at time of writing. The number of impressions (number of times users see a particular tweet) prior to March 20th 2017 (study commencement date) was 23,335 (343.2 per tweet), compared to the recruitment period with 114,314 impressions (256.3 per tweet), ending June 20th 2017. Each additional tweet was associated with an increase in recruitment of 1.66 (95%CI 1.36 to 1.97; p < 0.001).

Conclusion: The ELF Study over-recruited by nearly 100%, reaching over 200,000 people across the U.K. Branding enhanced tweet aesthetics and helped increase tweet engagement to stimulate discussion and healthy competition amongst clinicians to aid trial recruitment. Other studies may draw from the social media experiences of the ELF Study to optimise collaboration amongst researchers.

Trial registration: This study is registered online at www.clinicaltrials.gov (registration number NCT02952430 ) and has been approved by the National Health Service Research Ethics Committee.

Keywords: Recruitment; Social media; Surgical trials.

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Comparison of Impressions and Engagements between Phase 1 (pre-trial) and Phase 2 (patient recruitment)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Cumulative Weekly Tweets & Patient Recruitment
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Comparison of Weekly Impressions and Engagements during Phase 2 (patient recruitment)
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
A Scatter plot of the Cumulative number of tweets with cumulative total recruitment (r2 = 0.94)

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Source: PubMed

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