Using social media to change medical practice - The Breakfast at Glenfield Music Video

In April 2012 an audit of 58 healthcare professionals (HCPs) across University Hospitals Leicester (UHL), highlighted a lack of knowledge in acute severe asthma management. Only 62% had awareness of hospital guidelines for the management of asthma, only 45% used them. Knowledge of indications for chest radiograph, steroid use, criteria for safe discharge, and target oxygen saturation was particularly weak. We therefore revised the guidelines and created an innovative music video to improve the management of acute asthma across UHL. The guidelines were translated into memorable lyrics, sung over a famous song, and released onto YouTube. UHL Staff were informed via Facebook and Twitter. The video gained over 10000 views. Within days organisations such as the Department of Health and BBC News hosted the video on their websites. 55 UHL HCPs participated in the repeat audit (June 2012). The results were compared with the pre-intervention audit, and analysed using Fisher’s exact test. Results showed 100% of UHL HCPs were aware of the guidelines compared to 62% before (p Interest from other hospitals and even multinational companies has suggested a huge appetite for using social media in medicine. We have shown it can help improve clinical practice, but the method could be adapted to educate any group including difficult to reach populations such as teenagers and ethnic minorities. The possibilities are not limited by resources or money, but only by imagination. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj0PEn79Cuw.