Impact of social media on knowledge dissemination between physicians during COVID-19 virus outbreak: A cross sectional survey

BackgroundSocial media became an alternative platform for communicating during medical crisis as COVID-19 pandemic. Aim of the study1- to describe the use of social media by Physicians during Covid-19 outbreak 2- to determine how physicians obtain their medical information about the emerging disease 3- to determine physicians practice and how do they use the information received. MethodsThis is a cross-sectional web-based anonymous survey. Data were collected from Health Care Professional (HCPs) via fulfilling online designed questionnaire. Descriptive statistics with frequencies and percentages are presented. Results: The response rate was 66.2% (232/350). Smart phones was the most commonly used (94.8%) followed by laptops (13.4%). Facebook was used by 65.8% and WhatsApp by 52.8%. The data shared were medical newsletters (68%) and educational movies (52.2%). Source of information were mainly professional local pages (60.8%) then WHO pages (53.7%). Physicians shared trusted information (66.7%) and they confirmed the data were correct before publishing in 55.5%. They shared mainly WHO announcements and alerts (44%), professional lectures (32.1%) and 13.3% shared comics. Overall, 71% perceived lots of data about the cause of disease, clinical picture, daily spread, fatality rate and alert of the countries. ConclusionPhysicians are active users of social media. Facebook and WhatsApp are useful platforms to spread right data about diseases during pandemics. Most physicians are positive towards data published; they watch, read and disseminate trusted informations.