21st Century Anatomists: Social Media Use in Anatomy Education and Research

Roughly 50 delegates attended this two-hour workshop, which involved speakers sharing their research and experience on how to best use social media for both professional networking purposes and as educational tools. The platforms covered included Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and Facebook. Delegates were given tasks to complete on Twitter throughout the workshop. The challenges of using social media within the field on anatomy, including the increasing numbers of posts containing cadaveric material being shared publicly were discussed. Attendees also reflected on their online presence and how to optimize their online identity.
A post workshop evaluation form was circulated and 22 completed forms were returned. Ninety-five percent of respondents reported that they had learned something new about how to use social media as a result of the workshop, with 73% of respondents intending to use social media more for teaching and 82% intending to use social media (namely Twitter) more for professional networking. Twitter and Instagram were the two most popular platforms attendees intendeds to use a teaching adjuncts, however two attendees intended to use Snapchat. A relatively low proportion of attendees (27%) opended or intended to open a social media account as a result of the workshop suggesting that attendees already had social media accounts and attended the worskhop for further advice on how to use the platforms. Fifty-five percent of respondents intended to make changes to their online presence after the workshop. Attendees were asked what other actions they intended to take and open-ended responses revealed: using social media more for public engagement, giving more consideration to their online audience, joining the social media community of anatomy associations and applying more structure to their social media use. Attendees commented on the usefulness of hearing the practicalities of using different social media from a wide variety of experienced perspectives. Verbal and written feedback from attendees revealed a growing concern for the ethical and professional challenges of using social media in anatomy, including sharing cadaveric images on social media, which attendees feel needs more emphasis in the anatomy community.