Gastric Emptying Solid-Meal Content and Misinformation on Social Media Platforms

Abstract

Several nuclear medicine technologist–specific groups exist on social media sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn. Although these sites provide a valuable resource and forum for technologists to interact and pose questions, any recommendations, especially those regarding patient care, should be carefully scrutinized and evaluated on the basis of scientific merit and not opinion. Recently, an assortment of unvalidated ingredients for solid-meal gastric emptying scintigraphy has been suggested on these social media sites. Often, these ingredients do not comply with the peer-reviewed guidelines and can potentially produce unreliable results and misdiagnosis. Thus, before implementing advice from an unvetted source, technologists must distinguish between low- and high-quality information. Currency, reliability, authority, and purpose—a test of the trustworthiness of an information source—can help technologists evaluate recommendations and avoid the use of unsupported solid-meal gastric emptying scintigraphy ingredients.