Article Notes
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...