Social Media – the growing role in urology

The Social Media (SoMe) has revolutionized the way we communicate, interact and live. It has evolved from a purely entertainment role, into a powerful platform for sharing information, instant messaging, networking and bringing communities and societies together. Over the last few decades, SoMe has demonstrated a growing role in medicine. With an unlimited spread of scientific knowledge, the possibility of scientific interaction during medical conferences and medical education, as well as, easy access to international medical debates has made SoMe become an important factor in medicine and especially in urology. The urology community has foreseen the tremendous potential of SoMe, especially with the use of Twitter, which has led to the rapid adaptation of SoMe for conference use, dissemination of breaking news, emerging research, education and socializing. Recently, Twitter considered one of most dominant platforms has demonstrated an expanding role in scientific discussion, surgical news and conferences not only in urology, but also in other surgical specialties [1]. As authors of the article published in this issue of the CEJU [2], we have observed that the platform of Twitter has allowed for following publications, renowned urologists, creating discussion groups and forums on topics of interest in urology. In addition, we cannot forget of the important role of Twitter for the evaluation activity of international urology meetings . Twitter has altered the way we perceive a urological conference. Every major event has a dedicated hashtag, which brings all the conference information together, adding a new layer of interaction amongst delegates, and shortening the distance between opinion leaders and their audience. Taking part in discussion following a lecture has never been easier, as asking a question does not require stepping forward to the microphone any longer. Chairmen Social Media – the growing role in urology