Twitter Hashtags for Anesthesiologists: Building Global Communities.

Twitter is a social media platform that has been encouraged for use among anesthesiologists as a way to stimulate conversation, distribute research, enhance conference experiences, and expand journal club sessions. We aimed to establish the typical baseline use of hashtags that are not related to events such as conferences. Systematic searches were performed on Twitter, as well as through hashtag-tracking services, to identify actively used anesthesia-related hashtags. The most frequently used general anesthesia hashtags were #anesthesia and #anaesthesia. The most popular and relevant hashtags within anesthesia subspecialties or interest groups include #pedsanes, #anesJC, #OBanes, #intubation, #regionalanesthesia, #neuroanesthesia, and #cardiacanesthesia. We have identified the most popular anesthesia-related hashtags on Twitter to help anesthesiologists increase the reach and degree of discussions in anesthesia-related social media or twitter verse.