title: Tweeting the meeting: A comparative analysis of an Australian emergency medicine conference over four years.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Social media allows user-generated content and dialog between users and has also entered into the domain of healthcare. The purpose of this study was to compare the use of Twitter at the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine Annual Scientific Meeting (ACEM ASM) from 2011 to 2014 and analyze its ability to spread emergency medicine education.
  
  
  METHODS
  Retrospectively, TweetReach was utilized to analyze relevant tweets. Each Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM) had an associated Twitter account/s from, which data were collected. Duplicate tweets were excluded from the analysis. Information on the number of total tweets (regular tweets, retweets, and replies) and contributors was gathered. The potential audience, the reach, was calculated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  From 2011 to 2014 the number of tweets rose from 460 to 4694, a 920% increase. Only 54 Twitter users contributed to the 2011 ASM. This rose to 252 (2012), 291 (2013) and 572 (2014). The average number of tweets per contributor ranged from 8.2 to 10.9. The reach, the potential number of Twitter users exposed to posts, rose >30 times from 2011 (15,502 users) to 2014 (471,166).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The use of Twitter at the ACEM ASM rose significantly from 2011 to 2014. It is a highly useful tool for the dissemination of emergency medicine education. Twitter has been harnessed by the ASM to enhance the conference experience by further generating interaction between delegates as well as those worldwide.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne, Fitzroy, Australia.
authors.forename: Cristian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Udovicich
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, Australia.
authors.forename: Anthony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Barberi
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Eastern Health, Box Hill, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Kalpa
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Perera
keywords: Communication; conference; education; emergency medicine; social media