Abstract

Introduction: The advancement of technology has led to a shift in the perception of online medical education. Using tweets as the data source, this study investigates the evolving perception towards online medical education in the United States over the past six years, encompassing pre- and post-periods of the national emergency declaration for the COVID-19 pandemic.

Method: The latent Dirichlet allocation method was utilized to identify relevant topics from Twitter data. Subsequent sentiment and longitudinal cluster analyses were performed to determine the perspectives of Tweeter authors and identify groups of topics that share unique joint trajectories across the six years.

Results: The findings indicated that while formal medical education had to shift to an online format, prompted by the pandemic, this increased distinct needs and challenges for online medical education. Despite the challenges, positive efforts were also underway to support individuals, as evidenced by a rise in social safety and emotional support and an increase in objectivity toward online medical education.

Conclusion: This study provides valuable insights into the current state and perception of online medical education. By better understanding the challenges and requirements of online medical education, further efforts can be made to enhance its practicality, adaptability, and accessibility. 

Keywords: Online Medical Education, Social Media, Tweeter, Machine Learning.