Facebook's parent company Meta recently launched Threads as a competitor to Twitter, but data suggests the medical community is hesitant to make the jump to the new online community, Medpage Today reported July 14.
Threads launched July 6, seeing more than 100 million sign-ups in the first week. Numerous health systems and payers have also joined the platform this month. However, some physicians who are part of the #MedTwitter community are not finding Threads to be a suitable replacement. While physicians' Twitter use is down from last year, it's increased in the days since Threads launched July 6, according to HealthQuant, a firm that tracks physicians' online engagement.
"Threads is lovely, intuitive, and (thank goodness) primarily text-based," Megan Ranney, MD, an emergency physician and dean of the Yale School of Public Health in New Haven, Conn., told MedPage Today. "It does however feel like an 'MVP' (minimum viable product) — the algorithms are not fully baked, the timelines leave something to be desired and lack of a web-based application makes it tough to share the kinds of multi-post-threads that I loved to create on Twitter."
Physicians have also raised concerns about Threads lacking a search function, making it difficult to find colleagues. Meta representatives state that they are working on incorporating search functions in the future.
While the medical community seeks an alternative to Twitter, finding a new platform poses challenges, including the potential for fragmented online conversations. Building a new community from scratch takes time, and it may be necessary to connect and engage with different networks across platforms, experts said.