Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces: Medical Education and Networking Through a Pandemic By Steven T. Haywood, MD and Rodrigo G. Gerardo, MD, on behalf of the SAEM Virtual Presence Committee Historically, opportunities for networking and education for physicians and other medical professionals/trainees have largely been through in-person society meetings, continuing medical education (CME) events, and other professional gatherings. Over the last 10-15 years, social media has become a growing source for networking and medical education. A gradual transition towards digital meetings and education has been predicted for many years. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020, most major medical conferences have either been canceled or held
virtually. While a virtual conference has similar didactic offerings, the networking aspect is largely lost. A virtual wine and cheese event over Zoom is undoubtedly much different than casually strolling around a room meeting colleagues in person. While social media has been shown to overlap with medical education conferences, it now may be the answer to filling the void left by their cancellations. Traditional social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and even TikTok have played a larger role in filling this networking void left by canceled and virtual conferences. However, many
have felt that these platforms still lack a similar personal connection often made at conferences. This is likely because these platforms lack live interactive features where multiple users can hold a conversation in real time. In the networking vacuum created by the pandemic, Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces have emerged as excellent platforms for meeting other medical professionals.
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