discussion of the uses of social media for medical education, prepared as part of the STFM Medical Student Education Conference 2013

1. Social Media and Medical
Education:
A Brave New World
Mark Ryan, MD
Aaron Michelfelder, MD

2. Who Are We?
• Mark Ryan, MD
• Virginia Commonwealth University
Department of Family Medicine
• Aaron Michelfelder, MD,
• Loyola University Chicago, Stritch School of
Medicine Department of Family Medicine

3. Goals
• To introduce attendees to social media
tools, and to describe effective and
productive uses of social media tools
• To demonstrate how social media can
enhance medical education and active
learning

4. Objectives
• Identify 3 social media tools that will
benefit medical education
• Describe examples of how social media
tools can be used to enhance medical
education
• Describe cautions and limits to using
social media for medical education

5. • During this talk:
• Looking down at your smartphones is a
compliment
• The clacking of phone and computer
keyboards is the same as applause

6. Introduction
• We will provide examples of how social
media can be used to enhance medical
student education (#MedEd) – not to
discuss social media itself in detail
• There is a session on Saturday at 1 pm
(HT4) that will provide more detail on
social media itself

7. What is Social Media?
• Defined by Merriam-Webster online as:
• “forms of electronic communication (as Web
sites for social networking and microblogging)
through which users create online
communities to share information, ideas,
personal messages, and other content (as
videos)”

8. What is Social Media
• Social Media (SoMe) incorporates a set of
online tools and websites that allow users
to share ideas and user-generated content
while engaging with individuals and
networks without regard to distance or
location

9. What is Social Media?

10. Why Does Social Media Matter?
• ePatients
• Health 2.0
• Trainee use of social media, and their
online presence

11. Social Media Tools
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Blogs
• YouTube
• Audio podcasts

12. Facebook
• Largest social network: “where the eyes are”
• Allows individual and organizational accounts
• Posted material can be public or private
• Groups with specific areas of interest can be
formed and can be made public or private.

13. Facebook
• Share teaching ideas, curriculum
development, and instructional approaches
• “Social Media in Medical Education” Facebook
Group
• Virtual journal club?
• Post and share articles, and allow for
asynchronous discussion
• Virtual office hours?
• Discuss and clarify class material

14. Twitter
• Very short (140-character) messages
• Accounts can be public or private
• Users identified by “handle”: e.g.
@RichmondDoc
• Posts (“tweets”) are shared among
account “followers”, and can be shared
(“re-tweeted”, or “RT”) with other users

15. Twitter
• Starting a Twitter message with a
username targets that message to that
user, but is publicly visible
• Direct messages (“DM”) between users
are not visible publicly
• Hashtags (the # symbol, followed by
letters and numbers) help categorize
Tweets (e.g. #MSE13)

16. Twitter Hashtags
• Hashtags are searchable within Twitter,
and allow users to follow specific topics
(e.g. #MSE13 includes discussion about
this meeting)
• Hashtags allow for shared, live discussion
on these topics (e.g. TweetChat)
• Hashtags are catalogued at the
Healthcare Hashtag Project

17. Twitter Uses
• Cataloging information: #PM101 and @westr
• Bob shares and saves information on
personalized medicine by RT’ing with the
#PM101 tag.
• “Bottom line of the #pm101 hashtag: it serves
as a "filing cabinet" for course students,
meded students who follow me, and any
others interested in information I lump into
the "personalized medicine" category.” –
Robert West

18. Twitter Uses
• Virtual journal clubs and live discussion: #TwitJC
• Moderator @silv24 chooses articles and moderates the
discussion, and uses the blog to plan and archive discussion
points. The planned sessions use the #TwitJC tag
• “The thing I love most about the journal club is the wide
variety of participants, doctors of all grades and specialities
discuss papers with medical students, paramedics, nurses
and even non-medics who are interested in the topic. That
never fails to amaze me and I love the feedback from people
who say they love being able to discuss a paper with
specialists.” – Natalie Silvey
• Sometimes, the authors join the discussion:
http://wishfulthinkinginmedicaleducation.blogspot.co.uk/2011/
07/study-author-joins-twitjc-discussion.html

19. Twitter Uses
• Can use Twitter in a Power Point Talk
• Audience Can Tweet Questions
• Presenter Can “Auto Tweet” During Talk
From Various Slides
• Makes Talk Very Interactive
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/powerpoint-
twitter-tools-to-auto-tweet-instantly-view-
feedback/

21. Twitter Uses
• Experiencing breadth of connections and interactions--patient stories,
learning from other professionals: @daniellenjones
• “How do we ensure we are the best providers for our patients when we may
have absolutely no clue how they are feeling? I truly believe that, as medical
students, we have a very important role on the healthcare team, but when
our experiences are limited what do we base our actions off of? I believe
Social Media has a role to play here.” – Danielle Jones
• “So, yes – I follow patients on Twitter. Not my patients, but patients who
share their stories. I follow patients who explain how their doctors have
affected their mental and physical health – how their physicians have failed
them or fought for them and how it made them feel. I follow patients to
understand…to avoid complacency…to maintain compassion. I learn
from these people on a curve much different than that of traditional medical
training, because through them I learn to be acutely aware that my actions –
both positive and negative – are not quickly forgotten. I am sharply
conscious that an ounce of honest compassion can significantly improve
someone’s mental well-being…and that a moment of carelessness can
destroy it. And that, my friends, is not something that can be learned from a
textbook.” – Danielle Jones

22. Twitter Uses
• Personal connections, and sharing information and support: Brittany
Chan and #TwitterStudying
• “Twitter transformed from a major distraction to a valuable study
tool. I began to tweet questions to fellow med students about
concepts I didn’t understand, and they responded. Other students
would tweet their confusions, and I’d attempt to explain the
mechanism of a drug or the purpose of the alanine cycle. Many
times, several others would chime in to augment our collective
understanding or ask additional questions. We would tweet things
like, "Causes of polycythemia... GO!" followed by hashtags such as
#TwitterStudying and #TweetPimping. Fellow Step 1 studiers were
often the ones participating in these conversations, but sometimes
third- and fourth-year students and even physicians would contribute
their knowledge. With no study partners in my local area, I found
that these discussions helped me to comprehend difficult concepts,
and were hopefully just as beneficial to other students.” – Brittany
Chan

23. Twitter Uses
• @GuerillaMedEd: “Learning doesn't need
to happen in the classroom.”
• Virtual case discussions: presentation,
H&P, labs, discussion of DDx, review of
management, and discussion of key
learning points:
http://storify.com/GuerrillaMedEd/he-s-just-
not-feeding

24. Blogs
• The most traditional of social media tools
• Online publications/diaries, whose content
varies on the author’s interests
• Allow for longer, more detailed
discussions, and can include embedded
pictures, videos, etc
• Dialogue/discussion via comments

25. Blogs
• Asynchronous teaching: @FarrisTimimi

26. Blogs
• Didactic review and teaching cases:
http://hcwetherell.blogspot.co.uk/
• @hcwetherell uses comments and
#ECGClass on Twitter to promote
discussion

27. Blogs
• Teaching and study guides: A good
example is the student-developed and –
narrated Anatomy Zone
• In this case, the website collects YouTube
videos that can be reviewed at any time

28. YouTube
• Users can record videos on any topic and
upload them for viewing at any time
• These videos can be collected under a
“channel” and could range from patient
education information to medical education
topics
• Can use to record and publish short video
blogs, lectures or lessons, etc
• YouTube is part of Google = easily
searchable

29. YouTube

30. Audio Podcasts
• Users can record radio shows and
podcasts for listeners.
• Allows for live, interactive discussions
during the recording.
• Material can be available live, or recorded
and listened to on-demand.

31. Audio Podcasts

32. Social Media and Core Competencies
• Some family medicine core competencies
could be addressed via social media:
medical knowledge, interpersonal and
communication skills, professionalism and
systems-based practice

33. Social Media and Core Competencies
• Patient care: NO. (Not yet. Ever?)
• Medical knowledge: Increased access to
new sources of information; opportunities
to discuss information with multiple
contacts
• Practice-based learning and improvement:
probably not yet

34. Social Media and Core Competencies
• Interpersonal and communication skills: as
social media becomes more widely used,
we need to teach learners these skills
• Professionalism: Accountability to society
and the profession, and sensitivity to
diverse populations
• Systems-based practice: Enhanced
awareness of team-based care and the
roles of other professionals and of patients

35. Why Else Should We Care?
• We must teach medical students about the
potential risks of using social media. In
2009, JAMA reported that “60% of U.S.
medical schools surveyed reported
incidents of students posting
unprofessional content online.”

36. Social Media and Professional
Development
• Interactions and discussions via social
media can develop connections and share
ideas that lead to additional opportunities
including collaborations, media contacts,
and conference presentations
• “From Twitter to Tenure”

37. Cautions
• Privacy. Remember what is visible by the
public.
• Cannot practice medicine in this setting.
• Not reimbursed.
• No standards of use or official“best
practices”. The AMA guidelines are not much
help, and do not encourage use. There is no
definitive guide to best practices.
• Role is still developing, meaning that best
practices, etc. are still unclear.

38. In Summary:

39. • Many thanks to for ideas, discussion and
troublemaking: @RyanMadanickMD,
@TwitJournalClub and @silv24, @westr,
@daniellenjones, @amcunningham,
Brittany Chan, @FarrisTimimi,