Use of social media among Italian physiotherapists: a new opportunity for the profession or an unfavorable trend toward guruism?

Abstract

The advent of social media such as Facebook has introduced new opportunities for knowledge sharing and professional networking. Currently, little is known on how physiotherapists participate in virtual communities, and there are opposing views regarding the benefits and pitfalls of professional use of social media. In this letter, theoretical frameworks are proposed by analyzing the behavior of users and the post contents on Italian pages dedicated to physiotherapy. There is also an urgent need to evaluate whether virtual communities may improve final patient outcomes.