Contemporary social network sites: Relevance in anesthesiology teaching, training, and research.
OBJECTIVE
The phenomenal popularity of social networking sites has been used globally by medical professionals to boost professional associations and scientific developments. They have tremendous potential to forge professional liaisons, generate employment,upgrading skills and publicizing scientific achievements. We highlight the role of social networking mediums in influencing teaching, training and research in anaesthesiology.


BACKGROUND
The growth of social networking sites have been prompted by the limitations of previous facilities in terms of ease of data and interface sharing and the amalgamation of audio visual aids on common platforms in the newer facilities.


METHODS
Contemporary social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr,Linkedn etc and their respective features based on anaesthesiology training or practice have been discussed. A host of advantages which these sites confer are also discussed. Likewise the potential pitfalls and drawbacks of these facilities have also been addressed.


CONCLUSIONS
Social networking sites have immense potential for development of training and research in Anaesthesiology. However responsible and cautious utilization is advocated.
Department of Anaesthesiology, Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.
Rudrashish
R
Haldar
Department of Critical Care Medicine, Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.
Ashutosh
A
Kaushal
Department of Critical Care Medicine, Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.
Sukhen
S
Samanta
Department of Internal Medicine, Moti Lal Nehru Medical College, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India.
Paurush
P
Ambesh
Department of Anaesthesiology, Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.
Shashi
S
Srivastava
Department of Anaesthesiology, Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.
Prabhat K
PK
Singh
Anesthesia; information dissemination; multimedia; social networking; software