Physicians writing on KevinMD about being a doctor on X, formerly Twitter: professional presence and reputation, trolling and shaming, medical misinformation, building a following for a practice, and what the platform does to the people on it. Most of the archive dates from 2009 to 2019, when physicians were deciding whether to be there at all.
Social media and the Internet have often been compared to the Wild West at times when it comes to the posting of ideas, opinions, and beliefs. There has been very little regulation of what is posted and how it is…
Social media and the Internet have often been compared to the Wild West at times when it comes to the posting of ideas, opinions, and beliefs. There has been very little regulation of what is posted and how it is utilized — which may actually be a good thing.
However, many of us have learned (often the hard way) that posts on Facebook, Twitter or other social media sites can be …
You -- a medical student, resident physician or newly-minted medical attending -- are late in the game. Sure, you appropriately hopped onto Facebook during your first few years of college, only to rightly disengage around the advent of newsfeeds and…
You — a medical student, resident physician or newly-minted medical attending — are late in the game. Sure, you appropriately hopped onto Facebook during your first few years of college, only to rightly disengage around the advent of newsfeeds and cover photos. You passively signed up to LinkedIn last winter only to remain passively aware that your profile exists unfettered and …
An excerpt from The Public Physician -- Practical Wisdom for Life in a Connected, Always-On World. What you do, where you live, and what you intentionally create as a physician in public should be determined by what you want to…
What you do, where you live, and what you intentionally create as a physician in public should be determined by what you want to accomplish. What are you trying to get done?
In the wake of the latest school shooting in the state of Washington, much attention has been paid to the shooter’s (Jaylen Fryberg’s) Twitter account. In fact, after a school shooting, social media sites are typically the first place that…
In the wake of the latest school shooting in the state of Washington, much attention has been paid to the shooter’s (Jaylen Fryberg’s) Twitter account. In fact, after a school shooting, social media sites are typically the first place that people go to learn about the assailant. While this is understandable, one has to wonder if any of these school shootings …
With the recent attention given to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and the cases diagnosed in the United States, one of the main ways in which the public is being informed is through social media. Every single day on…
With the recent attention given to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and the cases diagnosed in the United States, one of the main ways in which the public is being informed is through social media. Every single day on Facebook, I see at least one story posted about the Ebola epidemic and its potential impact on the U.S. public and …
Whenever I speak about social media, much of it has to do with Twitter. It has become part of my daily routine, much like checking email or going to news media sites. I will often check-in on Twitter and will…
Whenever I speak about social media, much of it has to do with Twitter. It has become part of my daily routine, much like checking email or going to news media sites. I will often check-in on Twitter and will respond to items of interest — whether or not tweets were sent directly to me. However, I am cognizant …
As a physician who openly despises many aspects of current EMRs (see “How An EMR Gave My Patient Syphilis” or “The Medical Chart: Ground Zero For The Deterioration Of Patient Care” ) I recognize that they are here to stay.…
As a physician who openly despises many aspects of current EMRs (see “How An EMR Gave My Patient Syphilis” or “The Medical Chart: Ground Zero For The Deterioration Of Patient Care” ) I recognize that they are here to stay. And so, since we’re all stuck with these digital middlemen, I have some suggestions (based on popular social media platform functionality) …
In every life we have some trouble When you worry you make it double Don’t worry. Be happy. It will soon pass, whatever it is. Don’t worry. Be happy. – Bobby McFerrin Much has already been written in reaction to…
In every life we have some trouble When you worry you make it double Don’t worry. Be happy.
It will soon pass, whatever it is. Don’t worry. Be happy.
– Bobby McFerrin
Much has already been written in reaction to Robin Williams’ untimely death, about his incandescent talent, his prolific career, his decency and kindness, his addiction and his mental illness. His death robbed his fans of many more years of his genius …
I recently had the privilege of participating in a meeting hosted by the President's Cancer Panel on the role of social media in improving cancer control and treatment. The goal was to give advice to the Panel on a planned…
I recently had the privilege of participating in a meeting hosted by the President’s Cancer Panel on the role of social media in improving cancer control and treatment. The goal was to give advice to the Panel on a planned series of meetings they will be convening to discuss the topic. It was the range and quality of the discussion …
Is the phone in your pocket increasing your risk of being sued for medical malpractice? As more and more of our daily lives is being recorded and shared -- with or without our permission -- health care is no longer…
Is the phone in your pocket increasing your risk of being sued for medical malpractice?
As more and more of our daily lives is being recorded and shared — with or without our permission — health care is no longer a fully safe harbor of privacy and consent. For reasons both clinical and social, in practices both ethical and ill-advised, individuals are …
It won’t be long before every patient has a Twitter feed, and doctors subscribe to them for real-time updates. This is a time when the demands of being a physician are changing, and we need to leverage technology to maintain…
It won’t be long before every patient has a Twitter feed, and doctors subscribe to them for real-time updates.
This is a time when the demands of being a physician are changing, and we need to leverage technology to maintain awareness of a huge number of patients. There is also increasing need for handoffs and communication between providers.
Here’s the bottom line: How can we improve technology when doctors seem so resistant? …
A PubMed query of the phrase "social media" yields 8,747 unique peer-reviewed articles. When the search is refined to "social media medical education" there are 578 articles. When “professionalism” is also added to the search string, there are only 31…
A PubMed query of the phrase “social media” yields 8,747 unique peer-reviewed articles. When the search is refined to “social media medical education” there are 578 articles. When “professionalism” is also added to the search string, there are only 31 article results. This suggests that very few authors are writing about the topic: Approximately 0.4% of the available peer-reviewed literature about social media pertains to how we doctors should use and …
Thousands of health care providers now utilize Twitter and other social media as a means of communicating and staying in touch. We follow conference hashtags from afar to keep up-to-date, and to e-meet new and interesting people who share a…
Thousands of health care providers now utilize Twitter and other social media as a means of communicating and staying in touch. We follow conference hashtags from afar to keep up-to-date, and to e-meet new and interesting people who share a common goal. In this way, we are able to grow our networks, foster our relevance, improve our knowledge base, and reach out to assist others.
When doctors tweet about oncology, they tweet about breast cancer. A lot. Last year, about 4,000 doctors tweeted about cancer generating somewhere in excess of 80,000 tweets. And more than one in four -- a whopping 26 percent -- mentioned…
When doctors tweet about oncology, they tweet about breast cancer. A lot. Last year, about 4,000 doctors tweeted about cancer generating somewhere in excess of 80,000 tweets. And more than one in four — a whopping 26 percent — mentioned breast cancer, according to an analysis of physician tweets that we conducted for the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting.
That doctors talk overwhelmingly about breast cancer is either a ho-hum …
Is it possible for a doctor to be a journalist? A journalist a doctor? A runner to be a journalist and a doctor? In trying to be all the above I walked (arguably crossed) a line which sparked disappointment amongst…
Is it possible for a doctor to be a journalist? A journalist a doctor? A runner to be a journalist and a doctor? In trying to be all the above I walked (arguably crossed) a line which sparked disappointment amongst my co-workers, and criticism from the public.
When I started residency we had a lecture on the do’s and don’ts of social media. Don’t talk about patients, don’t post pictures of …
The government dropped a gigantic dataset: details on nearly every single procedure performed by a U.S. doctor on a Medicare patient. The release was greeted with some serious gnashing of teeth, at least as far as doctors were concerned. The…
The government dropped a gigantic dataset: details on nearly every single procedure performed by a U.S. doctor on a Medicare patient.
The release was greeted with some serious gnashing of teeth, at least as far as doctors were concerned. The American Medical Association, which has always been staunchly opposed to the release of this sort of data, made sure it’s objection was — again — on the record. MedPage Today leads …
As a pediatrician, I encourage families to search online for health advice. Yet how you search and where you click matters. Tips for you and your time with “Dr. Google” or “Surgeon Bing.” The Pew Internet Project’s research finds that…
As a pediatrician, I encourage families to search online for health advice. Yet how you search and where you click matters. Tips for you and your time with “Dr. Google” or “Surgeon Bing.”
The Pew Internet Project’s research finds that over 70% of Internet users in the United States say they have looked online for health information in the last year. Furthermore, most health information seekers (ie freaked out parents …
If knowledge is power, then content (in proper context) is king. Why am I online blogging, pushing content through my website and even interacting on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and many other sites? Because my patients are there. Increasingly, they…
If knowledge is power, then content (in proper context) is king. Why am I online blogging, pushing content through my website and even interacting on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and many other sites? Because my patients are there. Increasingly, they are utilizing the Internet to self-diagnose; to look for “second opinions” from peers and friends; to research a physician, recommended treatment, or hospital; or to find the latest information on their …
I gave a talk recently to a group of my peers about addressing the needs of patients after a diagnosis of cancer, emphasizing points where transitions occur -- from treatment, to end of therapy, surveillance, recurrence, and extending all the…
I gave a talk recently to a group of my peers about addressing the needs of patients after a diagnosis of cancer, emphasizing points where transitions occur — from treatment, to end of therapy, surveillance, recurrence, and extending all the way up to the end of life — and how important it is to consider the entire journey of a person …
Over the last decade, researchers, doctors and the life-sciences industry have made great strides in treating HIV. Medications once routinely delivered through complicated multidose cocktails are now, for some patients, available in a one-pill-a-day form. While adhering to even a…
Over the last decade, researchers, doctors and the life-sciences industry have made great strides in treating HIV. Medications once routinely delivered through complicated multidose cocktails are now, for some patients, available in a one-pill-a-day form. While adhering to even a once-daily regimen is still a challenge, significant progress on the treatment of HIV is undeniable.
On the prevention front, however, there’s still work to be done. Despite a significant public-education campaign …
