Physicians writing on KevinMD about Facebook and social media: practice pages and patient communities, privacy and professionalism, a doctor's identity stolen for a scam, health misinformation, and the toll of the feed on physicians and their children. Most of the archive dates from 2007 to 2019.

Does your medical office have a social media policy?

Social Media in Medicine
December 15, 2012

Even if you’re not involved on social media as a business, your employees or staff are more than likely on social media in their personal lives. And even innocent-seeming posts, tweets, pins or shares can leads to big repercussions if they are perceived as violating patient confidentiality. It is because of this that every medical office needs to set a social media policy to avoid any privacy or HIPAA violations.

First …

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Does your medical office have a social media policy?

The telephone is obsolete: How my patients contact me today

Physician
December 4, 2012

“Doctor’s office; please hold.”

You’ll never hear that when you call me. Never. You’ll also never get an automated answering system (I’m just referring to office hours, of course. Evenings and weekends the phone goes to Google Voice. More on that below.) We are also in the middle of a communication revolution. There are now so many other …

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The telephone is obsolete: How my patients contact me today

Guidelines to engage professionally in social media

Social Media in Medicine
November 9, 2012

The use of social media is a tricky business. A recent Wall Street Journal article points out the challenges that CEOs and business leaders face when using Twitter. Many CEOs and other executives relate stories of personal attacks and cyber stalking from disgruntled customers, former employees or competitors. Some have opted out of the social media space due to specific legal concerns. Other very successful business leaders continue …

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Guidelines to engage professionally in social media

Medical residents: Tips to keep a clean social media profile

Social Media in Medicine
November 3, 2012

By now, it’s common knowledge that people should be careful about what they post to social media sites — especially job seekers. But if you’re a resident or physician, you need to be especially careful because of HIPAA.

Again, this seems like common sense. But the more popular social media becomes, the more the lines are blurred. For most people, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and other sites are a part of day-to-day life. It’s easy …

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Medical residents: Tips to keep a clean social media profile

Pharma needs to embrace social media

Medications
October 28, 2012

Anyone working in the pharma industry will know it has been a tough few years. Dwindling innovation in the drug pipelines, the impact of global economic pressures and an increasing global focus on healthcare cost containment have all combined in a perfect storm for the sector often regarded as recession-proof.

As the backdrop to all this, social media has rapidly been finding its place as a powerful media in sectors selling …

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Pharma needs to embrace social media

For doctors online, common sense needs to be learned

Social Media in Medicine
September 21, 2012

Though I’ve personally been writing online for coming up on eleven years—basically the span of my entire medical career—I’ve never purported to be a pundit or expert when it comes to the topic of social media in medicine.  In some ways actually, I feel like Willy Loman, who built his little house in the middle of a field and later found himself surrounded by skyscrapers.  But …

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For doctors online, common sense needs to be learned

How social media can energize physician advocacy

Social Media in Medicine
August 25, 2012

It happened exactly one week ago today.  I was sleepily putting my phone down to take a shower after a long night of call.  I can’t explain the exact sequence of events, but in the blink of an eye my mobile fell into a full sink of water.  I grabbed it with lightning fast reflexes and blotted it dry with a towel.  As I expected, it was dead.

After an extensive …

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How social media can energize physician advocacy

Doctors: Become a key opinion leader using social media

Social Media in Medicine
August 21, 2012

Key opinion leaders (KOL) are still one of the most important corner stones for the marketing machines of pharmaceutical companies. Their network, expertise, reach and authority is what pharma is interested in. We’ve written about KOL stardom in the past and how to attain it. In this post I’d like to take a closer look at the implications social media has on KOL’ism.

First off, let me tell you one thing …

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Doctors: Become a key opinion leader using social media

Patient satisfaction in the age of social media

Social Media in Medicine
August 13, 2012

The patient satisfaction industry needs to be disrupted.

This old, legacy industry, with it’s outdated and overpriced technology needs a serious makeover. I work for a large physician group that uses a well-established patient satisfaction vendor. And I have had no end of frustration trying to figure out how the data I get back can be used to actually improve my practice and the overall patient experience.

Don’t get me wrong; I …

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Patient satisfaction in the age of social media

Doctors: Social media strategies to manage your identity online

Social Media in Medicine
August 7, 2012

Traditionally, a physician’s reputation was best established and passed along by word of mouth.  Discussions among friends or at church, sporting events or civic groups often provided the information necessary for potential patients to choose a healthcare provider.  Today, most patients and consumers of healthcare get information about medical conditions and physicians online.

Some …

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Doctors: Social media strategies to manage your identity online

Doctors: Find balance between work and social media

Social Media in Medicine
July 20, 2012

In a previous post on the Social Media Healthcare blog, I made an argument as to why physicians should be involved in social media—especially on Twitter.  The purpose of this post is to describe how I use social media as a busy clinician and teacher of family medicine to keep up to date with clinical and policy information and  also how I find the time to use social media. …

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Doctors: Find balance between work and social media

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

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

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Why Priscilla Chan may become the country’s most influential doctor

KevinMD
May 22, 2012

Who has the potential to be the most influential physician of our generation?

It’s Priscilla Chan, who not only recently graduated from medical school, but also married Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

When I brought this up on Twitter, someone responded that it was “disappointing at the same time. I’m certain her own merits and studies would have made waves alone.”

But her influence …

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Why Priscilla Chan may become the country’s most influential doctor

When it comes to doctors and social media, hospitals fail miserably

KevinMD
May 21, 2012

When it comes to medicine and social media, much of the attention is negative.

Doctors losing their hospital privileges because of Facebook.

Or other health care workers taking pictures of patients and posting them on the web.

It’s no wonder that many hospitals are taking a heavy handed approach when it comes to their doctors and social media.

Consider this story, Doctors warned …

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When it comes to doctors and social media, hospitals fail miserably

Becoming an organ donor requires more thought than a Facebook click

Conditions and Diseases
May 12, 2012

Facebook recently announced on Good Morning America that users in the U.S. and the U.K. can enroll as organ donors through links to official registries, making it easier for people who want to donate their organs to sign up. They’re working with Donate Life America, a nonprofit alliance of national organizations and state teams across the United States committed to increasing organ, eye and tissue donation.

But deciding to become an …

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Becoming an organ donor requires more thought than a Facebook click

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

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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