Pediatric Program Directors Should Have an Active Presence on Twitter

Abstract

For academic pediatricians, social media has become an important avenue for professional development through continuing education, professional networking, and academic collaboration. Pediatric residency program directors have recognized additional benefits of social media engagement via program promotion and resident recruitment. The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and subsequent move to virtual interviews for the 2020-2021 residency interview season have created a new urgency for pediatric program directors to establish an active social media presence, primarily as a means to engage applicants and provide them with information in lieu of cancelled away rotations and in-person interviews. Twitter is a free microblogging and social networking platform that allows real-time engagement among academic pediatricians. Here, we make the case that all pediatric program directors should have an active presence on Twitter.

Keywords: COVID-19; Twitter networking; collaboration; education; medical student; pediatric; program director; promotion; residency; social media.