No 31 - What have the Kardashians got in common with Twitter, Academic Medicine and my CV?
tldr
The Kardashian Index would suggest that my academic work is undervalued and that I am not a big name on Twitter. This nicely highlights the gap in modern academia between “serious” publications and social media “influence”/real word impact.
Every so often it pays to update your CV. For me, it is that time of year. I have been lucky to work with some great academics in Birmingham over the last decade, and really lucky to be involved with STARSurg, the WMRC, the RIFT study and some medical leadership organisations.
The lucky outcome is that I now have my initials on enough papers to get a speciality training number. The unlucky outcome is that I need to organise these papers on a CV. I know, I know, everyone is playing their tiny violins.
As I was sorting this out, I was thinking about the difference in impact between academic work and social media influence. And, like almost everything in life, you soon find out that someone else has already thought of your idea.
The St.Emlyn's Podcast: Ep 186 - Assessing online medical education resources with Peter Brindley https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/tj64bq/FOAMed_with_Peter_Brindley_St_Emlynsbpmrl.mp3
Brindley PG, Byker L, Carley S, Thoma B. Assessing on-line medical education resources: A primer for acute care medical professionals and others. Journal of the Intensive Care Society. March 2021. doi:10.1177/1751143721999949https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1751143721999949
I had already been thinking about “what influence” I might have had on academic medicine (very little), and this podcast and paper really hammered that home. There is a big difference between how many people:
1. Read your academic work
2. Cite your academic work
3. Change practice because on your academic work
4. Read your blogs and social media
5. Follow you on social media
You would think these 5 points above would correlate. The most “eminent” clinician would be the Prof in the ivory tower churning out highly cited and widely read papers. And these people do exist, but there are far more people who are “jobbing clinicians” who are far more influential on social media because they have attractive social media personalities. Of course, the Venn diagram does over lap and there are also lots of eminent Profs with lots of followers.
The fact that MedEd is now far more likely to be done online via Twitter, Youtube, Podcasts and blogs rather than books, journals and lectures has changed the career landscape.
Just for fun I thought I would try out the Kardashian Index calculator:
· http://theinformationalturn.net/kardashian-index/
· Results = Followers: 281 / Citations: 274
· Fc: 260.95647450117
· Kardashian Score: 1.0768079256786
Conclusion
I am not an Academic Kardashian, I am not a big name on Twitter (BNOT) or a big name in medicine (BNIM). Hardly surprising for a junior doctor still in GP training!
However, it does make your think about all of the hours, effort, blood, sweat and tears that you pour into this academic work. Mostly because you enjoy it but also because its sold to you as being essential for having a successful career.
After all that energy, some dancing cat on Twitter would still have far more influence.
By comparison, I have been writing blogs since 2013 and in total, they have had quite a few reads (see below). These blogs have taken a fraction of the time and effort of the papers but have probably had far more reads and potentially more impact/influence. Yet, they don’t really count for anything career wise.
Is anything going to change? If I want to be involved in medical education for the next 40 years, should I focus my time on more serious academic work or just keep blogging?
To become a well-regarded medical educator should you aim for the ivory tower or Kardashian style Twitter fame?
My favourite papers:
1. Evaluation of appendicitis risk prediction models in adults with suspected appendicitis
2. Teaching leadership: the medical student society model
3. Underreporting of secondary endpoints in randomized trials
4. Thermosensitive collagen/fibrinogen gels loaded with decorin suppress lesion site cavitation and promote functional recovery after spinal cord injury
I have highlighted these papers in particular because the No 1 is probably the only paper I have helped produced so far that could have a dramatic impact on practice in the UK. The other 3 papers were all just works of dedication, perseverance and bloody mindedness. No 4, especially, took 9 years between starting the work and having it published!
Blogs (Total views = 74,429)
1. 4661 views - (July 21 – April 22)
2. 47,416 views - https://jakemat91.wordpress.com/ (May 2014 – July 22)
3. 450 views - Trauma Elective Diary (May 2014 – July 22)
4. 21902 views - https://meducation.net/users/15444-jacob-matthews/blog_posts (May 2013 - April 22)
· Summary of the Birmingham Medical Leadership Society (BMLS) work
· Summary of the WMRC and RIFT Study work on appendicitis
https://scholar.google.com.au/citations?user=EnTi4QoAAAAJ
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jacob-Matthews-4/research (Total Reads = 10,000)
Individually Authored Papers (Total Citations = 178, individual citations after each reference)
1. Postoperative pulmonary complications following major elective abdominal surgery: a cohort study 2016 Perioperative Medicine 5 (1), 1-7 K Patel, F Hadian, A Ali, G Broadley, K Evans, C Horder, M Johnstone, J Matthews ... 40
2. Diaphragmatic herniation following esophagogastric resectional surgery: an increasing problem with minimally invasive techniques? 2016 Surgical endoscopy 30 (12), 5419-5427 J Matthews, S Bhanderi, H Mitchell, J Whiting, R Vohra, J Hodson, ... 36
3. Leadership and management in UK medical school curricula 2016 Journal of Health Organization and Management R Jefferies, IHN Sheriff, JH Matthews, O Jagger, S Curtis, P Lees, ... 26
4. Underreporting of secondary endpoints in randomized trials 2016 Annals of surgery 264 (6), 982-986 JH Matthews, S Bhanderi, SJ Chapman, D Nepogodiev, T Pinkney, ... 22
5. Teaching leadership: the medical student society model 2017 The Clinical Teacher JH Matthews, GL Morley, E Crossley, S Bhanderi 15
6. Mortality related to primary bariatric surgery in England 2017 BJS open 1 (4), 122-127 M Alam, S Bhanderi, JH Matthews, D McNulty, D Pagano, P Small, ... 14
7. Is the routine use of magnetic resonance imaging indicated in patients with scoliosis? 2018 Journal of Spine Surgery 4 (3), 575 V Dewan, A Gardner, S Forster, J Matthews, MN Ede, J Mehta, J Spilsbury, ... 11
8. Influence of social deprivation on provision of bariatric surgery: 10-year comparative ecological study between two UK specialist centres 2017 BMJ open 7 (10), e015453 S Bhanderi, M Alam, JH Matthews, G Rudge, H Noble, D Mahon, ... 7
9. A comparative study examining the management of Bowen’s disease in the United Kingdom and Australia 2015 Dermatology research and practice 2015 GL Morley, JH Matthews, I Verpetinske, GA Thom 6
10. True Mortality from Bariatric Surgery: Data from HES and ONS Births, Marriages and Deaths Register 2015 British Journal Of Surgery 102, 5-5 S Bhanderi, M Alam, J Matthews, D McNulty, P Small, D Pagano, ... 1
11. Thermosensitive collagen/fibrinogen gels loaded with decorin suppress lesion site cavitation and promote functional recovery after spinal cord injury 2021 Scientific Reports 11 (1), 1-20 J Matthews, S Surey, LM Grover, A Logan, Z Ahmed 0
12. Advice on how to navigate the MODREC process for junior researchers in the Defence Medical Services 2020 BMJ Military Health 165 (4) DAR JH Matthews, H Taylor 0
RIFT Collaborative Publications (Total Citations = 96, individual citations after each reference)
1. Evaluation of appendicitis risk prediction models in adults with suspected appendicitis 2020 Br J Surg 107 (1), 73-86 A Bhangu, D Nepogodiev, JH Matthews, GL Morley, DN Naumann, A Ball, RIFT Study Group on behalf of the West Midlands Research Collaborative. 73
2. Appendicitis risk prediction models in children presenting with right iliac fossa pain (RIFT study): a prospective, multicentre validation study 2020 The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health 4 (4), 271-280 D Nepogodiev, RJW Wilkin, CJ Bradshaw, C Skerritt, A Ball, ... 13
3. Right Iliac Fossa Pain Treatment (RIFT) Study: protocol for an international, multicentre, prospective observational study 2018 BMJ open 8 (1), e017574 RIFT Study Group On behalf of the West Midlands Research Collaborative 10
4. Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on management and outcomes of children with appendicitis: The Children with AppendicitiS during the CoronAvirus panDEmic (CASCADE) study 2022 Journal of Pediatric Surgery GS Bethell, T Gosling, CM Rees, J Sutcliffe, NJ Hall, ... 0
5. Author response to: Comment on: Evaluation of appendicitis risk prediction models in adults with suspected appendicitis 2020 Journal of British Surgery 107 (7), e206-e206 JH Matthews, D Nepogodiev, A Bhangu 0
STARSurg Collaborative Publications (Total Citations = 322, individual citations after each reference)
1. Impact of postoperative non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs on adverse events after gastrointestinal surgery 2014 Journal of British Surgery 101 (11), 1413-1423 STARSurg Collaborative, ... 81
2. Multicentre prospective cohort study of body mass index and postoperative complications following gastrointestinal surgery 2016 Journal of British Surgery 103 (9), 1157-1172 STARSurg Collaborative, ... 78
3. Safety and efficacy of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs to reduce ileus after colorectal surgery 2020 Journal of British Surgery 107 (2), e161-e169 33
4. Body mass index and complications following major gastrointestinal surgery: a prospective, international cohort study and meta‐analysis 2018 Colorectal Disease 20 (8), O215-O225 EuroSurg Collaborative, R Blanco‐Colino, S Lee, SK Kamarajah, P Vasko, ... 32
5. Prognostic model to predict postoperative acute kidney injury in patients undergoing major gastrointestinal surgery based on a national prospective observational cohort study 2018 BJS open 2 (6), 400-410 STARSurg Collaborative, ... 22
6. Association between peri‐operative angiotensin‐converting enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin‐2 receptor blockers and acute kidney injury in major elective non‐cardiac surgery: a … 2018 Anaesthesia 73 (10), 1214-1222 STARSurg Collaborative, TM Drake, LK Cheung, F Gaba, J Glasbey, ... 19
7. Perioperative intravenous contrast administration and the incidence of acute kidney injury after major gastrointestinal surgery: prospective, multicentre cohort study 2020 Journal of British Surgery 107 (8), 1023-1032 STARSurg Collaborative, TM Drake, LK Cheung, F Gaba, J Glasbey, ... 17
8. Students' participation in collaborative research should be recognised 2017 International Journal of Surgery 100 (39), 234-237 A Borakati, K McLean, TM Drake, EM Harrison, SK Kamarajah, C Khatri, ... 14
9. Safety of hospital discharge before return of bowel function after elective colorectal surgery 2020 Journal of British Surgery 107 (5), 552-559 12
10. STARSurg Collaborative. Determining Surgical Complications in the Overweight (DISCOVER): a multicentre observational cohort study to evaluate the role of obesity as a risk … 2015 BMJ Open 5 (7), e008811 D Nepogodiev, SJ Chapman, J Glasbey, M Kelly, C Khatri, TM Drake, ... 7
11. Critical care usage after major gastrointestinal and liver surgery: a prospective, multicentre observational study 2019 British journal of anaesthesia 122 (1), 42-50 KA McLean, JC Glasbey, A Borakati, TM Brooks, HM Chang, SM Choi, ... 5
12. Timing of nasogastric tube insertion and the risk of postoperative pneumonia: an international, prospective cohort study 2020 Colorectal Disease 22 (12), 2288-2297 EuroSurg Collaborative, JC Glasbey, S Bibi, F Pata, BB Ozkan, ... 2