Abstract 1618P
Background
Social Network have become immensely popular in recent years and provides new opportunities for health care personnel and institutions to interact with patients and other professionals, transforming communication, training and healthcare assistance. In particular, doctors and health professionals increasingly use social networks to update and train themselves.
Methods
The Italian Group of Data Managers (GIDMcrc) explore the use of Social Network among professionals involved in clinical research in Italy with an online anonymous survey of 13 questions, available from mid-February to mid-April.
Results
At 15 April 2020, 100 research professionals completed the survey: 52 clinical research coordinators, 23 physicians, 20 nurses and 5 others, mainly aged between 30 and 49 (n=79). The majority of respondents reported using Social Network rarely/sometimes, mainly to receive information (n=30, 54%), to find and share information in equal measure (n=13, 24%) or to share information only (n=10, 18,5%). 33% said to use them often. Among frequent users: 73% (n=24) log into Social Networks mostly to find and share information in equal measure (n=23, 70%). Only 13% do not use it. The most used Social Networks are Facebook (65%) and LinkedIn (61%). Almost half of the respondents (n=43) have been contacted by patients through social networks, mainly via Facebook (60%), e-mail (42%), WhatsApp (37%). 48% of respondents uses e-mails or other messaging systems to communicate with the patient or manage appointments, but only 15% have been trained on the use of Social Network.
Conclusions
This survey provides insight into the use of Social Network among research professionals, highlightings that the majority use them to search for information. Half of the professionals were contacted by patients looking for information or for managing their appointments. However, all this is done without specific training. If patients, healthcare professionals and researchers were informed and instructed about the correct use of Social Network, there could be benefits for research, like: faster recruitment in clinical trials, involvement of patients in the study design, sharing of trial results. In the near future, we would like to extend the survey to European colleagues, to see if there are any differences compared to Italy.
Clinical trial identification
Editorial acknowledgement
Legal entity responsible for the study
The Italian Group of Data Managers (GIDM).
Funding
Has not received any funding.
Disclosure
All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.