title: Strategy of robotic surgeons to exert public influence through Twitter.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Twitter is gaining growing popularity as a communication platform and potential tool to influence the public in medical matters. The aim here is to examine whether and how robotic surgeons use Twitter more influentially than other urologists.
  
  
  METHODS
  Robotic surgeons and other urologists that tweeted at the European urology congress were compared by assessing Twitter Follower/Following Ratio, Retweet Rank and Percentile and their Twitter strategies.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Robotic surgeons had a significantly higher Twitter Follower/Following Ratio (2.1, 1.4-2.4) and Retweet Rank percentile (92.1%, 90.5-93%) than other urologists (1.2, 0.8-2.1 and 88.9%, 87.3-91.7%, respectively). Robotic surgeons used original tweet content and links more often than other urologists (69.4% vs 53.8%, and 19.8% vs 12.5%, respectively).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Robotic surgeons had a higher public influence on Twitter than other urologists and posted original tweets and links in tweets and profiles more frequently. This strategy might optimize Twitter use by healthcare professionals in the future. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology and Pediatric Urology, University Hospital Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany.
authors.forename: Hendrik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Borgmann
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology and Pediatric Urology, University Hospital Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Woelm
authors.affiliation: Department of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery, University Hospital Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany.
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nelson
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology and Pediatric Urology, University Hospital Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany.
authors.forename: Kilian
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Gust
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology and Pediatric Urology, University Hospital Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany.
authors.forename: Rene
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mager
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology and Pediatric Urology, University Hospital Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Reiter
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology and Pediatric Urology, University Hospital Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Schilling
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology and Pediatric Urology, University Hospital Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany.
authors.forename: Georg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bartsch
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology and Pediatric Urology, University Hospital Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany.
authors.forename: Roman
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Blaheta
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology and Pediatric Urology, University Hospital Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany.
authors.forename: Axel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Haferkamp
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology and Pediatric Urology, University Hospital Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany.
authors.forename: Igor
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Tsaur
mesh_terms: D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D010820:Physicians; D011639:Public Opinion; D065287:Robotic Surgical Procedures; D061108:Social Media; D012955:Societies, Medical; D066231:Surgeons; D014572:Urology / Q000379:methods*; D000078329:Workforce
keywords: Twitter; communication; robotics; social media; strategy; surgery