Abstract

Social Media is ubiqitous. Everyone has heard of it but very few can define it. The use of social media in medicine is an uneasy alliance. There are many examples of its benefits but also significant reticence on behalf of organisations and institutions to completely adopt the range of platforms on offer. The evidence of benefit isn’t always clear but its ability to disseminate information rapidly can’t be disputed. This lecture will provide a balanced account of how social media can be beneficial to professionals and most importantly children and young people by aiding rapid diffusion of evidence based practice. In particular it will be identified how social media impacts on knowledge translation, different mechanisms of learning via social media will constrated and the benefits and relative risks of its adoption described.