Rheumatology Online: The State of the Art on Social Media

Dr. Liew explained how the GRA arose early in the pandemic in March 2020, inspired by a series of tweets from Leonard H. Calabrese, DO, and Jinoos Yazdany, MD, MPH, asking about collecting data in patients with rheumatic diseases via an online registry. Dr. Liew explains that a registry was created within two weeks of those initial tweets, followed by the group’s publication of the first 100 cases one month after the first tweet.

“Even though all of this started on social media as a bunch of tweets, this is impactful work,” Dr. Liew said. “A lot of the results we found in those early first few months have held up over time, such as the signal for rituximab being associated with more severe outcomes [in COVID-19].”

Podcasts

Dr. Putman

Michael Putman, MD, MS, an assistant professor of medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, discussed staying up to date in rheumatology via podcasts. He is the creator of the popular podcast Evidence-Based Rheumatology.

“Over one-third of individuals globally have listened to podcasts in the last year,” Dr. Putman said, noting that over 50% of Americans have listened to a podcast in the past, with 41% listening to one in the past month.

Getting started: The first step to exploring podcasts is finding an application to access them, such as Overcast, and to search for podcasts in areas of interest.

“Look for podcasts you find engaging and informative, on topics you are excited and care about,” Dr. Putman said.

He suggests searching for new podcasts periodically and unsubscribing from podcasts that are not enjoyable. Additionally, building playlists allow the user to curate content into themes of interest, such as a rheumatology section or sports podcast playlist.

Dr. Putman then highlights some of his personal podcast favorites, including the following recommendations for rheumatology podcasts:

• ACR on Air;

• Evidence-Based Rheumatology;

• RheumMadness;

• Lancet Rheumatology: In Conversation With …;

• Join Our Journey: Vasculitis Visionaries Podcasts; and

• Arthritis Life.

Creating a Podcast: Dr. Putman discussed some of the challenges of creating a podcast, including costs, a commitment to generate content continually, and publicity. “For every minute of the podcast, one should multiply that time by 10 to estimate the required time to create it,” Dr. Putman said.

He recommended creators obtain a microphone for better audio quality, purchase editing software to edit audio clips and find a hosting service to hold the podcasts.