The power of SoMe for dissemination of clinical practice guidelines Latest findings by the EAU Guidelines Office Dissemination Committee Dr. Nikita Bhatt East of England Deanery Cambridge (GB) On behalf of the EAU Guidelines Office Dissemination Committee nikitarb89@ gmail.com The European Association of Urology (EAU) Guidelines Office has appointed a Dissemination Committee to increase awareness of the guidelines with the ultimate aim of improving adherence to them, and advancing patient care. The Committe is composed of a scientific committee, a marketing expert, and a community manager (Figure 1). Through the work of this committee, the EAU became the first scientific association to systematically convert clinical practice guidelines (CPG) into social media (SoMe) posts for dissemination. This was published in the form of a proof-of-principle study on the use of Twitter as a platform for the dissemination and Figure 1: Infographic illustrating the strategy of the European Association of Urology (EAU) Guidelines Office Dissemination real-time evaluation of clinical guidelines in 2017. [1] Committee. It was recommended that other professional societies use these strategies to increase the reach and obtain rapid feedback on guidelines recommendations. The committee has now expanded its reach to include other SoMe platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram. However, the current role of SoMe for this purpose is not well known. CPG, such as the EAU Guidelines, are invaluable to clinical practice as they help in clinical decisionmaking using evidence-based medicine along with patient’s personal circumstances, values and preferences. However, despite their utility and advantages, the compliance to clinical guidelines is variable. In urology, adherence to various international guidelines issued by EAU, American Urology Association and National Comprehensive Cancer Network leaves room for improvement. CPG uptake does not occur spontaneously and requires active execution, especially for long-term implementation. Information dissemination in the medical field has been transformed by the advent of SoMe. These new communication technologies enable rapid and global information exchange among physicians, patients, organizations and other stakeholders. SoMe use can also have its limitations, including ethical implications for use in a healthcare setting with a need to protect patient privacy and confidentiality. However, if the power of SoMe is harnessed correctly, it can pave the way to unprecedented opportunities for CPG dissemination. CPGs represent an ideal source of information to promote on these platforms. However, there is a knowledge gap in the medical literature concerning existence and effectiveness of digital dissemination strategies for CPGs. With this context in mind, the EAU Guidelines Office Dissemination Committee conducted a systematic review on the role of SoMe in CPG dissemination across different medical specialties, which has been recently published on European Urology Focus. [2] Medline, Embase and Cochrane databases and the general platform Google were searched for all relevant publications using PRISMA guidelines. Only 5 studies were included after full text review. SoMe use for CPG dissemination is, in fact, a relatively new concept and all our included studies were published in the last 5 years. The specialties using SoMe for CPG dissemination included Neurology (complementary and alternative medicine in Multiple Sclerosis), Gastroenterology (Helycobacter pylori treatment), Anaesthesia (guidelines on National Tracheostomy Safety Project), Cardiology (Chronic Heart Failure) and Urology (EAU Guidelines). The included studies were a mixture of observational studies and pre/post interventional studies. The search strategy did not identify comparative, randomised or non-randomised trials, testing SoMe-based or other digital methods of CPG dissemination or implementation. There was a significant improvement in knowledge, awareness, compliance, and positive behaviours with respect to the CPG with use of the SoMe dissemination Guidelines Office
October/January 2022
Adapted from Pradere B, Esperto F, van Oort IM, et al. Dissemination of the European Association of Urology Guidelines Through Social Media: Strategy, Results, and Future Developments. Eur Urol Focus. 2021 Nov 10:S2405-4569(21)00289-3. doi: 10.1016/j.euf.2021.10.010. Online ahead of print.
compared to traditional methods. Owing to the recent application of SoMe in the context of CPG dissemination, there is no standardized format for its use. All studies included in the review reported very different methods of SoMe use and similarly variable methods of analysing the outcomes. As a common finding, a large audience (healthcare professionals and patients) viewed, and engaged with, the SoMe process of CPG dissemination, and expressed an intent to engage in this method in the future, further affirming its vital role in CPG dissemination.
“There was a significant improvement in knowledge, awareness, compliance, and positive behaviours with respect to the CPG with use of the SoMe dissemination compared to traditional methods.” In conclusion, the EAU Guidelines Office have pioneered the use of SoMe in dissemination of clinical guidelines. In order to investigate this in other specialties the Dissemination Committee published a first of its kind systematic review on use of SoMe for dissemination of CPG. This showed that SoMe use has an impact as it led to significantly increased awareness of the CPG, knowledge of the CPG and change in attitude with regards the CPG with no negative outcomes reported so far. Based on this publication, a pragmatic method of using SoMe for CPG dissemination has been proposed (Figure 2). Considering the importance of CPG in practice and
the ever-increasing role of SoMe in our professional lives, a new role for SoMe in CPG dissemination could be established. In the future, as the SoMe use in this context expands, comparative studies and randomized trials comparing SoMe to traditional methods of dissemination would be useful to determine its impact on dissemination and implementation. In the meantime, the EAU Guidelines Office Dissemination Committee continues its work in introducing novel ways and improving the application of SoMe in the dissemination of EAU Guidelines internationally. References 1. Loeb S, Roupret M, Van Oort I, N'dow J, Van Gurp M, Bloemberg J, Darraugh J, Ribal MJ. Novel use of Twitter to disseminate and evaluate adherence to clinical guidelines by the European Association of Urology. BJU Int. 2017 Jun;119(6):820-822. doi: 10.1111/bju.13802. Epub 2017 Mar 10. 2. Bhatt NR, Czarniecki SW, Borgmann H, van Oort IM, Esperto F, Pradere B, van Gurp M, Bloemberg J, Darraugh J, Rouprêt M, Loeb S, N'Dow J, Ribal MJ, Giannarini G; EAU Guidelines Office Dissemination Committee. A Systematic Review of the Use of Social Media for Dissemination of Clinical Practice Guidelines. Eur Urol Focus. 2021 Sep;7(5):1195-1204. doi: 10.1016/j. euf.2020.10.008. Epub 2020 Nov 7.
Appendix Current members of the European Association of Urology Guidelines Office Dissemination Committee are: Nikita R. Bhatt, Vito Cucchiara, Esther Garcia Rojo, Benjamin Pradere, Jeremy Y. Teoh, Elisabeth Hesston, Jarka Bloemberg, Julie Darraugh, Marc Van Gurp, Maria J. Ribal and Gianluca Giannarini (chair).
Crafting a winning scientific programme . . . . 1 Update from the Guidelines office . . . . . . . . . 2 The power of SoMe for dissemination of clinical practice guidelines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 EAU policy update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 ERN eUROGEN Exchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Clinical challenge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Key articles from international medical journals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-11 Patient Information: What have we learned?. 12 History of face masks in medicine. . . . . . . . . 13 Obituary: Christopher Griffith Wood. . . . . . . 13 ESUO: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in urology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 ESU section: An overview of ESU masterclasses in 2021 . . 15 Hybrid 8th CEUEP delivers urolithiasis, BCa & PCa updates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 E-BLUS course in Gijón: A new model for online evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 “The virtual ESU courses are a way out during a pandemic”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 ESU Urology Boot Camp Serbia 2021. . . . . . . 19 21st RSU congress offers expansive urology fundamentals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Virtual ESU-ESFFU Masterclass on Functional Urology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Virtual ESU course focuses on upper tract laparoscopy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 ESU Urology Boot Camp Lisbon 2021. . . . . . 21 GPC: “Improving urological education in the developing world”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 PCombi adds data to potential role for estrogens in PCa. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 YAU: More opportunities for young urologists in PCa research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 YAU meets at EMUC21. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 PI: The right information at the right time can save lives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 ESUR21: An excellent platform to discuss urology research. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 European Board of Urology welcomes new President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Virtual PCa21 delivers vital updates on PCa management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Obituary: Sergio Musitelli. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 ERUS 2021: A Breakthrough year for new robotic systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 EMUC21: Multidisciplinary updates from diverse fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 ESFFU: Management of post-prostatectomy incontinence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Urology Week 2021: International effort against incontinence taboo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 ESOU22: Principal topics, expectations and COVID-19. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Introducing UROtech22: A new meeting for 2022 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Obituary: Stefan Loening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Figure 2: Pragmatic approach to a SoMe campaign for CPG dissemination based on the summary of systematic review findings. CPG = clinical practice guideline; Q + A = question and answer; SoMe = social media
EAUN section: “We have fought for an independent nursing framework". . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Prostate cancer care and exercise . . . . . . . . 35 Sexocorporel: Clinical sexology in urological context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Post-EAUN webinar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
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