The Influence of Social Media in Orthopaedics

Social media's presence has extended to almost every industry in the world. In orthopaedics, this lends benefits to practitioners, allowing them to interact with patients, build their practice, recruit research subjects, advertise residency programs, and disperse research findings. It also allows advantages to patients, allowing them to learn about their conditions and potential treatments as many patients use social media to get health information. However, patients can also be heavily influenced by what they read online. Much of this information is not vetted by governing bodies such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), organizational bodies such as the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), or the social media companies themselves. Manufacturers have started to exploit this lack of oversight by marketing products to patients with false claims that do not have rigorous clinical data behind them, creating the potential for harm. Patients are not well equipped to understand what is appropriate for the specifics of their conditions but are convinced by these powerful marketing techniques. They then come to appointments requesting treatments that are not indicated for their conditions. This strains the patient-physician relationship and can cause worse patient outcomes. Products are marketed in many fields of medicine, and orthopaedic device companies are increasingly targeting patients. This review, therefore, explores the potential benefits and drawbacks of social media in medicine in general and orthopaedics specifically and possible solutions to these issues. Namely, the introduction of some form of filtering from the FDA, CDC, other orthopaedic governing bodies, or social media platforms.