#MissingInAction: A review of the social media footprint of South African interventional radiology practitioners

Journal of the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa

 
 
Field Value
 
Title #MissingInAction: A review of the social media footprint of South African interventional radiology practitioners
 
Creator Mpateni, Siviwe S. Zwakala, Kuhle M. Pitcher, Richard D. Da Silva, Michelle
 
Subject Radiology, Interventional Radiology, Health education interventional radiology; social media; public health; medical education; health promotion; South Africa
Description Background: Interventional radiology (IR) is a rapidly developing branch of medicine; however, the general awareness of the subspeciality among patients and medical colleagues is limited. Social media (SM) has become an integral part of information transfer globally, and its utility as an effective communication tool can be leveraged by IRs to bridge this knowledge gap. This study investigated the SM footprint of IR providers in South Africa.Methods: An online analysis of radiology practices (N = 100) registered on the Radiological Society of South Africa (RSSA) website was performed. The SM footprint of practices offering IR services was audited, and statistical analysis was performed to examine the level of SM uptake, the relationship between SM uptake in urban versus non-urban locations and between practice size.Results: There were 38 practices offering IR services with 68% (n = 26) located in major metropolitan areas. A systematic online Google search revealed that 84% (n = 32) had a website and the most widely used SM platform was Facebook. There was a statistically significant correlation between the size of the radiology practices and the total number of SM accounts (p  0.05).Conclusion: Most South African IR practitioners have a SM presence with larger radiology practices establishing a broad digital presence on SM. Poor SM visibility, particularly from smaller practices, on these platforms may limit their ability to reach their target audience.Contribution: Improving the current usage of SM by IR practitioners may present an opportunity to display their services.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2025-03-12
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Audit
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/jcmsa.v3i1.97
 
Source Journal of the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa; Vol 3, No 1 (2025); 6 pages 2960-110X 3105-4331
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://jcmsa.org.za/index.php/jcmsa/article/view/97/475 https://jcmsa.org.za/index.php/jcmsa/article/view/97/476 https://jcmsa.org.za/index.php/jcmsa/article/view/97/477 https://jcmsa.org.za/index.php/jcmsa/article/view/97/478
 
Coverage South Africa 2023 —
Rights Copyright (c) 2025 Siviwe S. Mpateni, Kuhle M. Zwakala, Richard D. Pitcher, Michelle Da Silva https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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