BACKGROUND: Paediatric orthopaedics is a significant and difficult for undergraduate students to master. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we used the WeChat platform to combine the advantages offered by problem-based learning (PBL), case-based learning (CBL) and paper review teaching methods to establish a new blended online teaching model and demonstrated its feasibility and effectiveness.
OBJECTIVE: This study aims to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of a new blended pedagogical method that uses the WeChat platform and combines PBL, CBL and paper review.
METHODS: We enrolled 22 students participating in the Department of Paediatric Orthopaedics. They participated in the WeChat blended pedagogy mode. Their departmental rotation examination scores were compared with those of 23 students who participated in the traditional teaching method. Moreover, an anonymous questionnaire was used to evaluate students\' perceptions and experiences.
RESULTS: The total average scores of students who participated in the WeChat blended pedagogy mode and the traditional teaching method were 47.27 and 44.52, respectively. There were no statistically significant differences between the online teaching mode and the traditional teaching method in terms of possessing professional accomplishment, gaining knowledge and promoting interpersonal skills (P = 0.07, P = 0.12 and P = 0.65, respectively). In terms of independent clinical thinking, self-improving capability and improving clinical skills, the scores associated with the WeChat blended pedagogy mode were 8.00, 8.00 and 6.00, whereas those associated with the traditional teaching method were 6.70, 6.87 and 7.48. The overall satisfaction with the WeChat blended pedagogy mode reached 100%. A total of 64%, 86%, 68%, 64% and 59% of students chose very large or large in response to the items concerning professional accomplishment, knowledge absorption, independent clinical thinking skills, English reading and literature exploring capacity, as well as interpersonal skills, respectively. Fifteen participants claimed that the WeChat blended pedagogy mode was less helpful to them with regard to promoting the improvement of their clinical skills. Nine students claimed that the WeChat blended pedagogy mode was time-consuming.
CONCLUSIONS: Our study verified the feasibility and effectiveness of the WeChat blended pedagogy mode for undergraduate paediatric orthopaedics internships.
BACKGROUND: Retrospectively registered.

The widespread use of digital communication technologies has created new opportunities for social research. In this paper, we explore the limits and potentials of using messaging and social media apps as tools for qualitative research. Building upon our research on Italian migration to Shanghai, we discuss in detail the methodological choice of using WeChat for teamwork, remote sampling strategies, and conducting interviews. The paper highlights the benefits that researchers may have from employing the same technology that the studied community uses in their daily life as a research tool, and advocates for a flexible approach to research that adapts its tools and methods to the specific requirements and characteristics of the fieldwork. In our case, this strategy allowed us to emphasize that WeChat represents a digital migratory space which played a crucial role in understanding and making of the Italian digital diaspora in China.

BACKGROUND: Health professionals in low- and middle-resource settings have limited access to up-to-date resources for diagnosing and treating illnesses, training medical staff, reviewing newly disseminated guidelines and publications, and preparing data for international disease reporting. A concomitant difficulty in high-resource settings is the need for continuing education and skills up-training in innovative procedures on unfamiliar social media platforms. These challenges can delay both patient care and epidemiological surveillance efforts. To overcome these challenges, health professionals have adapted WeChat Groups to implement timely, low-cost, and high-quality patient care.
OBJECTIVE: The primary study aim was to describe the processes taken by medical professionals across their diverse physical and virtual networks in adapting a bottom-up approach to collectively overcome resource shortages. The secondary study aim was to delineate the pathways, procedures, and resource/information sharing implemented by medical professionals using an international publicly available popular social media app (WeChat) to enhance performance of facility-based procedures and protocols for improved patient care.
METHODS: In-depth interviews, observations, and digital ethnography of WeChat Groups communications were collected from medical professionals in interconnected networks of health care facilities. Participants\' WeChat Groups usage and observations of their professional functions in interconnected networks were collected from November 2018 to 2019. Qualitative analysis and thematic coding were used to develop constructs and themes in NVivo. Constructs incorporated descriptions for the implementation and uses of WeChat Groups for professional connections, health care procedures, and patient care. Themes supporting the constructs focused on the pathways and venues used by medical professionals to build trust, to establish and solidify online networks, and to identify requests and resource sharing within WeChat Groups.
RESULTS: There were 58 participants (males 36 and females 22) distributed across 24 health care settings spanning geographical networks in south China. Analysis yielded 4 constructs and 11 themes delineating the bottom-up usage of WeChat Groups among clinicians, technicians, nurses, pharmacists, and public health administrators. Participants used WeChat Groups for collectively training hospital staff in complex new procedures, processing timely diagnoses of biological specimens, staying abreast of latest trends and clinical procedures and symptoms, and contributing to case reporting for emergent illnesses and international surveillance reporting. An unexpected strength of implementing clinical, training, and research support on a popular app with international coverage is the added ability to overcome administrative and geographic barriers in resource distribution. This advantage increased a network\'s access to WeChat Groups members both working within China and abroad, greatly expanding the scope of shared resources.
CONCLUSIONS: The organic, bottom-up approach of repurposing extant social media apps is low cost and efficient for timely implementation to improve patient care. WeChat\'s international user base enables medical staff to access widespread professional networks across geographic, administrative, and economic barriers, with potential to reduce health disparities in low-resource settings.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) information can be effectively disseminated via social media in a variety of industries, including the hospitality sector. In the same way, the media has a significant impact on CSR because the news media helps companies achieve their CSR goals. Prior research has not examined the main factors that influence electronic word of mouth (eWOM) on media coverage of CSR issues via social networking websites. For the purpose of examining the most significant predictors of intention to share or comment on negative CSR news reported by one media outlet on a specific social networking site (SNS). 677 Wechat users in China were surveyed in order to test the proposed model empirically. According to the findings of the study, eWOM intentions are positively influenced by environmental CSR content, and advertisement related CSR content. It also confirmed that the value of information is positively influenced by the credibility of the source. The variables interpersonal influencer impact and privacy concerns had no significant relationship, nor did they have any significant relationship with the intentions to share and comment on Wechat. Further the study findings suggest the theoretical and managerial policy recommendation for decision makers.

OBJECTIVE: COVID-19 prevention and control demand a reduction in crowd gathering, which has a significant impact on traditional teaching and offline case-based learning (CBL). In order to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on clinical teaching, we aimed to compare the effects of an online CBL with traditional teaching model on learning outcomes of anesthesia residents.
METHODS: Residents rotated in the Department of Anesthesiology in Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital from January 2020 to February 2021 were included in Group W (n = 19), which implemented the W-CBL teaching model. The performance of residents was evaluated with theory test and 2 survey questionnaires (A and B) were conducted after 1 month of rotating. All 20 residents rotating in the Department of Anesthesiology at our hospital from January 2018 to December 2019 were included in Group C, which implemented the traditional teaching model. Their examination results were acquired through the teaching files and survey questionnaire (A) were administered through WeChat.
RESULTS: During the 1-month rotation, a total of 10 cases were discussed in Group W. The average score for theory test was higher in Group W than that in Group C (84.57 ± 4.87 vs. 79.35 ± 3.70, P = 0.001). The satisfaction rate was also in favor of Group W regarding to clinical thinking, communication skills, learning interest and self-learning ability (P < 0.05).
CONCLUSIONS: Online CBL based on WeChat platform is an effective and acceptable teaching strategy in comparison to lecture-based learning (LBL) among residents embarking on clinical anesthesia courses.