Who are EM3?

EM3 or ‘East Midlands Emergency Medicine Educational Media’ is an online emergency medicine educational resource, based out of Leicester Royal Infirmary ED. While their web presence is the foundation of their online resources, they are most interesting for the very successful way they translate emergency medicine research and education through multi-platform social media and FOAMed.

So, what happened?

In late October there were two inadvertent errors in educational resources simultaneously posted by EM3 to Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Reddit. The errors were quickly identified and corrected, but despite this the incorrect posts continued to be shared, reaching some 15,000 people.

Edwards and Roland carefully describe the events, the approach EM3 took to correcting the errors, and analysis of the potential impact. They discuss the challenges when correcting what is by its very nature a dynamic resource, and one for which there is limited control once released. EM3 discuss the additional oversight added to their peer review process in response.

Their report is a cautionary tale for the FOAMed community and a useful resource for avoiding and managing SM errors when they inevitably occur.

Don’t be hasty...

Acknowledging that the reach and velocity offered by social media and FOAMed also bring accuracy and credibility concerns, traditional academic publishing is not without its own problems.

Whether outright academic fraud, replication crises or information overload, we already know that incorrect medical information persists for decades after being disproven. This is not a new problem, though FOAMed does accelerate the speed and scope for both good and bad.

Between the lines

The context of the article’s publication reveals the ongoing tension between FOAMed and the reality of traditional academic publishers, such as the BMJ: ‘Learning from mistakes on social media’ is not itself open access...

summary

• Sarah Edwards and Damian Roland.
• Leicester Royal Infirmary, Emergency Department, Leicester, UK.
• Emerg Med J. 2019 Aug 1; 36 (8): 453-455.

BackgroundClinicians in the emergency care specialties often access information via social media (SM) to supplement their learning. The rapid and user-centred dissemination of information via SM speeds knowledge translation and means unnoticed errors may propagate quickly. East Midlands Emergency Medicine Educational Media is a UK web-based resource that produces emergency medicine-related learning materials. In October 2018, we inadvertently shared two sets of incorrect learning materials via SM because of a non-intentional mistake. We highlight how these errors were perpetuated and then corrected.MethodIn October 2018, two separate posts were published on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Reddit. One was an incorrect ECG where a paced rhythm was published instead of an ECG of hypocalcaemia; the other was incorrect information contained within an infographic. We reviewed the analytics of the posts, on each of the SM platforms.ResultsThe ECG mistake was picked up on Facebook 40 hours after posting by a follower. The infographic mistake was picked up on Reddit, within 3 hours. Despite these mistakes, and their correction, they continued to be shared on both Twitter and Facebook. The posts reached over 15 000 people.ConclusionHighlighting errors in educational content shared on SM is rarely reported in academic literature. We feel disclosure, and adding an update to the post is the best methodology to amend errors. We invite debate on a strategy to elucidate the number of errors in medical educational resources shared via SM and strategies on how to correct and improve them.© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2019. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.

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