Mentorship, Sponsorship, and the Emerging Role of Social Media.

Reply to the Editor:

Thank you to Xu and colleagues for their very thoughtful letter in response to my commentary on the article by Drake and colleagues and to the journal for the privilege of replying. Xu and colleagues are correct in their observation and extremely forward thinking in terms of the ever-growing role of digital and social media in thoracic surgery. This evolving presence is one that precedes the coronavirus disease 2019 era and will supersede it as well!

Two important points in the letter from Xu and colleagues need further emphasis. First the need for mentorship and sponsorship are critically important to the developing thoracic surgery trainee and early career surgeon yet are distinct and separate needs. The mentorship role is one of primarily advising, whereas the sponsorship role is one of advocation. It is the need and ability to sponsor that leads us to the second important point: The ability of digital and social media to facilitate access across diverse mentors without geographic, social, or temporal restrictions.

The influence of digital and social media, particularly for thoracic surgery trainees and early career surgeons, is powerful for both mentorship and sponsorship. Sponsorship emerges in following individuals or societies, retweeting or reposting, and promoting interesting perspectives, milestones, research, papers, presentations, or life events. As Xu and colleagues also state, social media is able to help grow mature, large networks of mentors, particularly for women.

Although adept use of digital and social media in the current coronavirus disease 2019 era is vitally important to keeping us all connected, in building and maintaining relationships, and for sponsoring our peers, it will not cease to be of intrinsic value as we emerge to in-person events. On the contrary the use of digital and social media will only enhance those in-person events and facilitate connectivity to our peers in different time zones, geography, or social conditions and include their voices in the conversations. As Xu and colleagues state, we should “encourage aspiring cardiothoracic surgeons, as the mentors of tomorrow, to take part.”