Soc. Int. Urol. J., Volume 4, Issue 2 (March 2023) – 16 articles , Pages 81-152

The patient was a 53-year-old male who presented to Moffitt Cancer Center with a fungating lesion of the ventral penis and scrotum which was biopsy proven to be well-differentiated squamous cell carcinoma, invasive into at least the lamina propria, and unknown human papillomavirus (HPV) [...] Full article

To date, although some benefits resulting from a software-guided technique are undeniable, no clear superiority of fusion over cognitive targeted biopsy (COG-TB) has been supported by strong evidence. We discuss potential causes of trials failing to show the superiority of fusion TB (FUS-TB) and highlight its advantages over the cognitive approach. One possible reason why current literature showed contradictory evidence in supporting FUS-TB may be the lack of high-quality well-designed trials. Indeed, most of the studies addressing this issue have considerable limitations, such as underpowering, small sample size, lack of randomization, and poor generalizability. A second reason may be the inclusion in the majority of trials of a wide spectrum of MRI-lesions, a scenario in which the benefits of FUS-TB may be less evident. In fact, some of the few studies considering smaller targets demonstrated higher accuracy for the FUS technique. As concerns the advantages of FUS-TB, the opportunity offered by some fusion systems of storing information useful for planning and/or follow-up active surveillance, focal therapy, and radical prostatectomy, as well as a reported faster learning curve, are strong points supporting the fusion approach. In conclusion, the potential advantages when targeting smaller lesions together with the storage capability to guide patient management after the biopsy and an easier learning curve may make the FUS approach the more appropriate technique for performing TB. Full article

Social Media (SoMe) platforms are widely used by urologists with over 99% using SoMe and 63% of young urologists rating the influence of SoMe on knowledge acquisition as moderate to high. The urology community is abreast with the SoMe revolution in many ways but several new methods of SoMe dissemination remain to be explored. These provide an exciting future for SoMe enthusiasts in urology and beyond. In this article, the European Association of Urology Dissemination Committee explores these novel methods of SoMe dissemination while discussing the importance of maintaining quality, ethics, and reliability in SoMe and the role EAU plays in it. Full article

Social media can improve patient education but may pose risks due to misinformation. There is no consensus on categorizing types of misinformation and harm. This study aimed to categorize and quantify misinformation and resultant harm from posts on YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram on pelvic organ prolapse (POP), a prevalent benign condition that impacts quality of life. We conducted a descriptive study of 300 posts presented in these platforms in 2019. Using Fisher exact test, we show a significant difference in the distribution of misinformation between social media platforms. Harmful posts were most frequently present on Pinterest, leading to harmful inaction and economic harm. Full article

Crowdfunding involves obtaining financial support for a project through public engagement. It is a form of crowdsourcing, where monetary and non-monetary contributions from the public are obtained for a common aim. Crowdfunding is an increasingly popular way of gaining additional monetary support for medical research projects and may act as a supplement to conventional funding. Social media can influence which projects are likely to be successful. Engagement on social media can increase the funding obtained. In this brief communication, we introduce the concept of crowdfunding, give practical applications, and describe the characteristics of successful campaigns. Full article

Introduction: Social media has become a prevalent platform for survey dissemination, despite the paucity of literature on this topic. The purpose of this paper is to outline the benefits and drawbacks of and best practices for social media-based surveys. Methods: We performed a scoping review of this topic and explored different strategies commonly employed for conducting efficient health care surveys via social media platforms. Results: The main advantages of social media-based surveys are the convenience and flexibility of survey design, their relatively low cost, the anonymity of responders, and the ability to reach a broader population of responders across geographical boundaries. Several measures can be adopted to avoid issues inherent in this approach, such as data disruption and response duplication, as well as to enhance ethical behaviors and consent compliance. We discuss limitations associated with unclear distribution of survey respondents and outline survey fraud as a major impediment to the online propagation of surveys on various social media platforms. Discussion: The use of social media to disseminate surveys on various medical specialty topics has garnered global participation, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ethical codes of conduct emphasize the need for professionalism and truthfulness, and disclosure of potential conflicts of interest on the part of respondents, and high-quality survey research on the part of researchers. Conclusion: We advocate for the novel use of social media to promote large and diverse health care surveys. Additional studies should further explore the use of emerging social media platforms for survey dissemination and their impact on health care research. Full article

Objective: On average, internet users aged 16 to 29 years spend 3 hours per day on social media platforms. Previous research has identified social media as an important tool for prospective applicants in the age of virtual residency interviews, but no study to date has included TikTok as a social media platform of interest. TikTok is the fastest-growing social network in the United States, and there were predictions it would reach 1.8 billion users by the end of 2022. This study seeks to understand the difference in reach of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok to inform medical student engagement efforts. Methods: A binary (Yes/No) poll was posted on MCG Urology accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. The poll asked the question “Are you a medical student?” and was open for viewing and/or response on each platform for 24 h. The number of total views and the number and percentage of respondents were recorded for each application. Engagement was determined by the percentage of viewers who responded to the poll. Results: A total of 3038 views and 839 responses were collected from all social media platforms. TikTok had the highest number of views (1838) and responses (617) but low engagement (33.56%). The highest percentage of “Yes” responses was on Twitter (61%); however, Twitter had the lowest engagement of 7.2%. Results of a chi-square test showed that while the total raw number of medical students reached was highest on TikTok, of all those who engaged with the poll, there were statistically significantly more medical students on Twitter (p < 0.0001). Conclusions: Medical student outreach can be successfully conducted through social media. Twitter allows for engagement with a statistically significantly larger proportion of medical students, and TikTok allows access to a grossly larger audience of medical students. Urology residency programs should consider the utility of both Twitter and TikTok for student outreach. Full article

Social media usage has drastically increased in recent years. In particular, social media usage among medical providers has become commonplace. It may offer a variety of benefits in the medical arena, with respect to information dissemination, health promotion, and education. However, the implications of social media usage and engagement remain to be seen. This narrative review aimed to describe and highlight the effects of social media usage and engagement and to provide guidance for engaging in social media as a medical professional. Our review demonstrates that active social media engagement unequivocally affords the urologist with meaningful opportunities for self-promotion, branding, education, networking, research, and enhanced recruitment efforts, but this engagement comes with the risk for burdensome exposure to misinformation and harassment. We encourage adherence with American Urological Association/European Association of Urology (AUA/EAU) social media best practices and provide our own recommendations for social media engagement. Full article

Objective: To characterize academic urology Twitter presence and interaction by subspecialty designation. Methods: Using Twitter application programming interface of available data, 94 000 specific tweets were extracted for the analysis through the Twitter Developer Program. Academic urologists were defined based on American Urological Association (AUA) residency program registration of 143 residency programs, with a total of 2377 faculty. Two of 3-factor verification (name, location, specialty) of faculty Twitter account was used. Additional faculty information including sex, program location, and subspecialty were manually recorded. All elements of microblogging were captured through Anaconda Navigator. Analyzed tweets were further evaluated using natural language processing for sentiment association, mentions, and quote tweeted and retweeted. Network analysis based on interactions of academic urologist within specialty for given topic were analyzed using D3 in JavaScript. Analysis was performed in Python and R. Results: We identified 143 residency programs with a total of 2377 faculty (1975 men and 402 women). Among all faculty, 945 (39.7%) had registered Twitter accounts, with the majority being men (759 [80.40%] versus 185 [19.60%]). Although there were more male academic urologists across programs, women within academic urology were more likely to have a registered Twitter account overall (46% versus 38.5%) compared with men. When assessing registered accounts by sex, there was a peak for male faculty in 2014 (10.05% of all accounts registered) and peak for female faculty in 2015 (2.65%). There was no notable change in faculty account registration during COVID-19 (2019–2020). In 2022, oncology represented the highest total number of registered Twitter users (225), with the highest number of total tweets (24 622), followers (138 541), and tweets per user per day (0.32). However, andrology (50%) and reconstruction (51.3%) were 2 of the highest proportionally represented subspecialties within academic urology. Within the context of conversation surrounding a specified topic (#aua21), female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery (FPMRS) and endourology demonstrated the total highest number of intersubspecialty conversations. Conclusions: There is a steady increase in Twitter representation among academic urologists, largely unaffected by COVID-19. While urologic oncology represents the largest group, andrology and reconstructive urology represent the highest proportion of their respective subspecialties. Interaction analysis highlights the variant interaction among subspecialties based on topic, with strong direct ties between endourology, FPMRS, and oncology. Full article

Introduction: The growing adoption of social media (SoMe) by the scientific community has cemented the role of SoMe in information dissemination and engagement of academic work. The objective of this study is to evaluate the relationship between traditional and alternative SoMe metrics of urology journals. Methods: Urology journals listed on the SCImago Journal & Country Rank (SJR) electronic portal were selected and data pertaining to traditional metrics were collected. Official SoMe platforms of eligible journals were identified and indicators of online activity were recorded. Correlations between traditional metrics (SJR, h-index, and Scopus CiteScore) and social metrics were performed via Spearman rank-order correlation. Results: Of 107 journals, 54.2% of journals had at least one form of SoMe presence. The median SJR (0.535 versus 0.334, p = 0.005), h-index (34 versus 20, p = 0.001), and Scopus CiteScore (3.25 versus 2.20, p = 0.014) were significantly higher among journals with SoMe networks. All 3 traditional indicators demonstrated strong global correlations with various Twitter-based metrics (r_s = 0.428 to 0.571). In particular, SoMe journals with more than 3000 citations in the previous 3 years also displayed very strong correlations between all 3 traditional metrics and alternative social metrics (r_s = 0.714 to 0.821). Conclusions: Journals with SoMe presence had significantly higher traditional metric values (SJR, h-index, and CiteScore) compared to journals without SoMe presence. Strong, positive correlations between citation-based and alternative social metrics were also observed. Alternative social metrics may be harnessed as supplemental indicators of a journal’s scientific impact. Full article