H. J. Logghe1, M. A. Boeck2, K. A. Hughes4, T. K. Varghese5, N. J. Gusani6, C. D. Jones3 7University Of Colorado Denver,Aurora, CO, USA 1University Of North Carolina At Chapel Hill,Department Of Surgery,Chapel Hill, NC, USA 2New York Presbyterian Hospital,Columbia, Department Of Surgery,New York, NY, USA 3Johns Hopkins University School Of Medicine,Department Of Surgery, Division Of Acute Care Surgery,Baltimore, MD, USA 4Falmouth Hospital,Department Of Surgery,Falmouth, MA, USA 5University Of Utah,Department Of Surgery, Division Of Cardiothoracic Surgery,Salt Lake City, UT, USA 6Penn State Hershey Medical Center,Department Of Surgery, Division Of Surgical Oncology,York, PA, USA
Introduction: Despite nearly half of US medical students being female, only 15% of general surgeons are women. Additionally, only 5.5% of US physicians identify as African-American and 6.3% as Hispanic. Globally, surgery includes even fewer minorities, challenging recruitment and retention of underrepresented groups in the field. The sparsity of colleagues of similar backgrounds may lead to feelings of isolation. This study sought to examine the methodology and results of the diversity-championing #ILookLikeASurgeon social media movement to describe a novel approach to networking, advocacy, and collaboration.
Methods: In August 2015, the Twitter hashtag #ILookLikeASurgeon was introduced, accompanied by a blog post detailing the goal of the hashtag and encouraging others to tweet photos using the hashtag #ILookLikeASurgeon in support of diversity in surgery. Dynamic interactions across social media platforms (including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and blogs) encouraged users to post photos depicting practicing and aspiring surgeons. Reposting ensuing messages fostered participation, increased dissemination, and magnified impact. Engagement of traditional media, podcasts, and surgical conferences strengthened the message of inclusion. Data from Symplur Signals about Twitter activity were retrospectively analyzed using descriptive statistics.
Results: In twelve months on Twitter #ILookLikeASurgeon continued to be a multilingual multinational phenomenon, including nearly 250 million impressions, 13,000 participants, and 70,000 tweets, averaging 8 tweets per hour with more than 50% containing photos. Participants included patients, undergraduate and medical students, residents, and attendings across surgical and medical specialities, with posts from personal, organizational, and institutional accounts. The movement received significant traditional media coverage, with newspaper articles in French, Spanish and German, a feature on the NBC Today Show website and audio interviews on the BBC.
Conclusion: The #ILookLikeASurgeon Twitter campaign proved to be a successful method of uniting surgeons from diverse backgrounds from around the world in real time, at no cost, and without travel, thus pioneering a new frontier for surgical discourse. This single hashtag formed a virtual community advancing networking, mentoring, and research collaborations, while simultaneously humanizing the profession, demonstrating that anyone from an extraordinarily diverse group can look like a surgeon. A year after the first tweet, the hashtag continues to foster a virtual community for discussion on issues of gender, diversity, and the evolving culture of surgery.