Physicians writing on KevinMD about being a physician in public: professional presence online, patient privacy, online reviews and reputation, medical misinformation, and how clinicians use social platforms to teach, advocate, and connect. KevinMD itself has been a case study in this since 2004.

Social media is crucial to the development of medicine today

Social Media in Medicine
June 24, 2012

Much has been written about educating patients.  This can be in the form of educational materials provided during the office visit, providing access to accurate online medical data, or even educating patients about wellness- how to be well, stay well and live well.  As physicians, I believe that part of our responsibility is to teach.  As the familiar adage from residency goes: “see one, do one, teach one” – we …

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Social media is crucial to the development of medicine today

Google+ Local physician reviews: A barrier for patients

Social Media in Medicine
June 22, 2012

Google’s made big changes recently. Google Maps and Google Places are being replaced by Google+ Local.

While Google+ Local will likely advance the review system for many industries- doctor reviews, however, will grind to a halt. Unless Google recognizes the considerable onus of HIPAA on today’s healthcare professionals, and subsequently carves out a healthcare-friendly mechanism for doctor reviews, expect that far fewer patients will post; the posts will generally read like …

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Google+ Local physician reviews: A barrier for patients

The physician Internet road does not need to be a rocky one

Social Media in Medicine
June 21, 2012

There’s no denying that the Internet has been an industry-changing phenomenon across a wide variety of fields. When it comes to healthcare, though, it’s suffered a rockier relationship.

The reason behind this strained relationship can be summed up handily in one word: skepticism. Skepticism from doctors, nurses and really anyone who spends time diagnosing patients. For the most part, this skepticism is understandable — after all, anyone with an Internet connection …

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The physician Internet road does not need to be a rocky one

New Google and Facebook changes that affect your physician website

Social Media in Medicine
June 8, 2012

It used to be simple: build a practice website, stuff it with some keywords and your online spine practice marketing is done. Those days are long gone and search optimization and social media strategies continue to explode and cause confusion among medical professionals. New Google changes have caused practice sites to disappear or plummet in search ranks. Guidance for a proper social media strategy varies wildly or is non-existent. Mobile …

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New Google and Facebook changes that affect your physician website

How to get started on Twitter: A primer for doctors

Social Media in Medicine
June 3, 2012

So you’ve decided to take the plunge (or at least, dip your toes) into the Twitterverse.  Congratulations! Welcome to a vibrant interactive community.  You’ll find plenty of different personalities here and lots of opinions.  But if you are like I was back in January 2011, you currently have no idea how to actually use Twitter, let alone how a physician might want to use it.

There are plenty of places to …

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How to get started on Twitter: A primer for doctors

Twitter is a valuable health resource for patients

Social Media in Medicine
May 29, 2012

If you’re like many of us, the minute you or someone you care about is diagnosed with something, you go online to do research. You may even reach out to your Facebook friends. You’re far less likely to think, “Hey! Now that I have cancer/diabetes/MS, I better get a Twitter account!” If you can’t understand what people get out of Twitter, this post is for you.

Reason #1. Real-time conversations with people who’ve been there. It doesn’t matter whether you’re dealing with cancer, …

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Twitter is a valuable health resource for patients

The online presence of health information empowers patients

Social Media in Medicine
May 27, 2012

The growth in internet and social media networking has introduced a new era in healthcare.

This growth in mobile health, or “mHealth”, will have a number of implications, which can be broadly defined as a new opportunity for health professionals to explore, listen and engage with both patients and colleagues.

In order to maximize the advantage of connected care solutions, we must first identify how advances in social media and mobile technologies …

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The online presence of health information empowers patients

We need to see the potential harm of social media

Social Media in Medicine
May 4, 2012

Prior to 1794, farms across the world could only pick cotton as fast as humanly possible.  In the late 18th century, Eli Whitney discovered the cotton gin and a simple process done since 500 AD was instantly improved upon.  This invention took 1200 years and a lot of hard labor before it was discovered.  Once this invention was created it caused efficiencies but also caused concern for a decreased …

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We need to see the potential harm of social media

Why social media may not be worth it for doctors

Social Media in Medicine
April 30, 2012

Social media in healthcare is all the rage these days. You can’t visit even one physician-oriented website without someone breathlessly advising you to be on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and now Pinterest. Yet the only reason these talking heads can give you is, “because they are really popular and everyone is doing it.”

Social media consulting is a bubble economy at the moment.

Don’t listen to them.

1. There is no return on …

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Why social media may not be worth it for doctors

Transparency defines social media success for doctors

Social Media in Medicine
April 23, 2012

Want to understand social media? Physicians wanting to learn about social media must learn transparency. We must learn transparency on a personal level and also learn how to operate our medical practices with the same transparency as any other small business.

Our patients (and our prospective patients) now define “great” doctors as those who are willing to display transparency, that is, doctors must be willing to show a human side.

For us …

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Transparency defines social media success for doctors

How Twitter was used in a potential mass casualty scenario

Social Media in Medicine
April 20, 2012

It was my first ER shift in charge of the resuscitation area. Needless to say, my adrenaline and nerves were firing like crazy; being responsible for the sickest of the sick that rolls through our doors is a daunting task, especially since we were the local trauma center.

The shift was going relatively well, and with only a few hours left I was beginning to breathe a sigh of relief.

BEEP!

There is …

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How Twitter was used in a potential mass casualty scenario

The gender divide when it comes to health tracking online

Social Media in Medicine
April 14, 2012

Stephen Wolfram’s essay, The Personal Analytics of My Life, begins, “One day I’m sure everyone will routinely collect all sorts of data about themselves.”

A Pew Internet survey suggests we have a long way to go: a September 2010 survey found that 27% of internet users age 18+ track their own health data online. There may be more self-tracking happening offline — please post any measures of that phenomenon in the …

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The gender divide when it comes to health tracking online

The legal landscape of health care social media

Social Media in Medicine
April 8, 2012

I have been asked to write up some of the core takeaways from the health care social media presentations I have been giving recently, so I am sharing a version of this narrative on HealthBlawg, in two parts.  This is Part II, you may wish to begin with Part I. 

The American Medical Association has promulgated a social media policy; so has the Veterans Administration.  The two represent …

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The legal landscape of health care social media

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The ethics of social media use for the medical profession

Social Media in Medicine
April 8, 2012

At the end of the day, I do not see social media as an end to itself. I enjoy the conversation and the opportunity to learn outside the walls of my medical school without having to put in too much effort. I relish the (illusion of?) freedom that it provides by drawing together the world’s most technology and innovation-driven minds. It allows high-level discussions of even the most esoteric topics …

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The ethics of social media use for the medical profession

Why I’m not hiding social media from residency interviews

Social Media in Medicine
April 2, 2012

As Match Day for the Class of 2012 quickly fades into the background and residency applications for my class begin to appear on the horizon, I find my classmates starting to disappear from Facebook and other socially-oriented websites.

“Are you taking your blog down for application and interview season?” someone innocently asked, “I mean, some program directors just may not appreciate the social media involvement as much as you do.”

The question, …

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Why I’m not hiding social media from residency interviews

The problem with social media and health

Social Media in Medicine
March 22, 2012

Humans have invented tools to solve problems for themselves since day one. We need to bang something into the ground. That rock over there will work. We need to communicate with one another over a distance. Hey, how about some smoke signals?

The social web is just another tool to solve our communication problems in addition to smoke signals and the telephone. It’s absolutely wonderful at spreading new ideas, new being …

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The problem with social media and health

How to maintain physician professionalism in social media

Social Media in Medicine
March 21, 2012

Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.
– Bertolt Brecht

In prior posts, I have discussed the issue of professionalism and social media.  I have also taken issue with medical organizations’ extant social media guidelines.  In some of these posts’ comments, it has been noted that there is no corresponding guideline or document that expressly discusses …

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How to maintain physician professionalism in social media

5 ways to make social media work for doctors and their patients

Social Media in Medicine
March 15, 2012

There’s no question that social media is taking root in the healthcare field, and will only continue to grow in importance.  According to a recent Pew Internet survey, four out of five Internet users have searched for health information online, making health one of the most searched topics on the internet. While on the one hand, this is good news for doctors since patients are often using the information they …

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5 ways to make social media work for doctors and their patients

Refer patients to Twitter for weight loss

Social Media in Medicine
March 8, 2012

Lifestyle interventions are effective, but require multiple visits of behavioral, nutrition, and exercise counseling over 6 months to 2 years if delivered true to original form.  Few medical centers offer such services, leaving this care to be handled by commercial vendors or simply leaving patients to deal with their weight on their own. This predicament is likely a factor in the development of a $60 billion fad diet industry, which …

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Refer patients to Twitter for weight loss

Use patient reviews to improve your Google rankings

Social Media in Medicine
February 27, 2012

Look no further than online patient reviews to discover what is good, bad, and downright ugly about your practice. Some will say it’s important to monitor these reviews in order to improve patient care or manage your online reputation, but there’s another hidden advantage that is perhaps the most valuable of all – …

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Use patient reviews to improve your Google rankings

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