1. Pharmacy and Social Media
Benetoli A, Chen TF, Aslani P
Faculty of Pharmacy, The University of Sydney, NSW, Australia
Background
Results
 The Internet is a source of health
information
for
pharmacists
and
patients.
 22 studies identified (Fig 1), covering SM as a general concept, and
focusing on specific SM types.
 During the last decade, the Internet has
advanced to Web 2.0 which has
predominantly user generated content.
 Social media (SM) is a group of websites whose multimedia content (e.g.
texts, images, audios, videos) are
created and exchanged by users.
 SM comprises:
 content-sharing applications, such
as Blogs, Wikis, YouTube;
 Social Networking Sites (SNS),
relationship-building
applications,
such as Facebook, Google+.
 SM can be used by pharmacists in a
professional capacity and as an
educational tool.
Fig 1. Types of social media used
 Facebook was the most commonly studied SM platform (Fig 2).
Aims
 The majority of studies determined the use of SM by pharmacists,
pharmacy educators and students (Fig 3).
 This review aims to systematically
assess the use of social media in
professional pharmacy practice and
pharmacy education.
 Pharmacist, pharmacy educators, and students used SM mainly for
personal reasons.
 SM was used in education as elective courses, using Facebook, Wikis or
Twitter.
 One third of studies used SM as an educational intervention (fig 3).
Methods
 Literature review on social media and
pharmacy using PRISMA guidelines.
 Pharmacists did not use, and were unwilling to use, social media in a
professional capacity.
 Databases: Medline, Embase, PubMed,
IPA, and CINAHL.
 Peer-reviewed
research
included, since 2000.
papers
 Key word categories used:
social AND pharmacist
media
or student
AND
pharmacy
Fig 2. Representation of Facebook
prominence in the studies retrieved
Fig 3. Studies’ main focus
Conclusions
 Social media has been adopted into pharmacy education with different approaches.
 No study was identified that addressed the delivery of pharmacy services through social media.
Scholarship funding: CNPq Brazilian Government Program “Science Without Borders”
correspondence: aben3861@uni.sydney.edu.au