![\"Damian](\"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/sapphire\/files\/2015\/10\/Damian-Roland-blog-photo.jpg\")
<\/a>We\u2019re lucky in SAPPHIRE to have lots of incredible researchers doing fascinating work. These SAPPHIRE Spotlight profiles will highlight some of them and their exciting research projects.<\/p>\nThe series starts with Dr Damian Roland, who is a Consultant at the University of Leicester NHS Trust and Honorary Senior Lecturer in the SAPPHIRE group. Damian\u2019s clinical specialty is Paediatric Emergency Medicine, but his research involves not only clinical themes such as the identification of serious illness in children<\/a>\u00a0but also a focus on medical education and the interaction between social media, education, and academic research.<\/p>\n Damian was recently part of a small team awarded the first prize in the Stanford Medicine X | Symplur Signals Research Challenge 2015<\/a>, a competition intended to encourage research into social media and healthcare. The award-winning research examined the #FOAMed<\/a> hashtag, an acronym for \u2018Free Open Access Medical education\u2019. FOAM<\/a> is a constantly-evolving, globally accessible, online collection of medical resources \u2013 essentially a way of crowdsourcing medical learning. The hashtag allows twitter users from across the world to share information, discuss and debate, issues and search for answers to queries. The team\u2019s research examined the use of the hashtag on twitter, and analysed the data to prove that the users of the hashtag could be correctly described as members of a true \u2018community of practice\u2019.<\/p>\n Damian explained that the research is significant because it \u201cgives a degree of credibility to a movement which has been criticised as lacking peer review and being beholden to a few key individuals.\u201d Damian is a staunch advocate of the benefits of social media, and is a prolific tweeter<\/a> and frequent blogger<\/a> himself.<\/p>\n He\u2019s concerned that the term \u2018social media\u2019 is often misunderstood: \u201cIt is often viewed as just one thing but in fact usually involves multiple platforms and tools through which you can access, curate, and disseminate information. It gives me considerable advantages both in terms of keeping up to date on current literature and spreading the word about my own research.\u201d<\/p>\n An active member of the FOAM community, Damian is keen that it is understood as a movement, rather than something static. He reflected that it\u2019s based upon the principle \u201cthat good educational materials are there to be shared and that there are many clinicians and professionals with the passion to produce them and to learn from those produced by others.\u201d The movement originated in the critical and emergency care community but has spread across many other specialities, demonstrating medical professionals\u2019 dedication and enthusiasm for improvement and education.<\/p>\n Damian commented, \u201cI\u2019ve learned a great deal from FOAM content (whether it be blogs, videos, or podcasts) but even more important has been the contact with the community of individuals, and the shared learning that this has generated. These interactions have been the most powerful drive for me to remain engaged.\u201d<\/p>\n