This document summarizes a presentation on using social media in medicine given by Dr. Paul Sufka. The presentation covered Dr. Sufka's experience using social media as a rheumatologist, potential uses of social media for physicians including participating in online journal clubs and research dissemination, and tips for getting started on Twitter including following relevant experts and participating in online discussions.

1. Social Media in
Medicine
Minneapolis VA Grand Rounds
April 5, 2019
Paul Sufka M.D.
@psufka

2. Affiliations and Disclosures
• Rheumatologist & department chair for HealthPartners.
• American College of Rheumatology member, on communication and
marketing committee.
• Social media editor for @ACR_Journals under the American College of
Rheumatology & Wiley (Journals: Arthritis & Rheumatology, Arthritis
Care & Research, ACR Open Rheumatology).
• Freelance articles and reporting for RheumNow.com.
• Advisor for ClinicianNexus (Online clinical rotation scheduling &
management platform).
• I will not discuss off label use and/or investigational drug use in this
presentation.
• No were harmed in the making of this presentation.
Details: http://paulsufka.com/disclosures/

3. PLEASE
Slides & references:
paulsufka.com/va
Pictures and sharing
encouraged!

4. Goals
Getting started on
Twitter
Uses of social media for
physicians
Building your personal
learning network
Questions/demos/etc…

5. For later in the talk…
• Please download the Twitter app to your phone
• If you haven’t used Twitter for a while, check to
see if you can login.

6. My Journey On Social Media
First restarted using Twitter in
Medicine around the ACR annual
meeting in 2011
Photo: http://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2011/11/tweetup-at-2011-acr-scientific-meeting.html
Started to organize “TweetUps” at annual
meetings beginning in 2013

7. My Journey…
In 2014, ACR organized a series
of lectures on social media
At that time, was part of a rheumatology
podcast, and we started #RheumJC

8. My Journey…
#RheumJC poster Joined ACR Marketing
& Communications
Committee
More widespread use of
Twitter at ACR

9. My Journey…
Attending #dotMD in
Dublin
Advocacy in
Rheumatology
Ninja status Social media editor for
@ACR_Journals

10. Rheum Dis Clin North Am. 2019 Feb;45(1):113-126. doi: 10.1016/j.rdc.2018.09.010.

12. Social Media &
Rheumatology Trainees
• EMEUNET: 68% using social media for
professional reasons Ann Rheum Dis 2017;76(4):712–5.

13. Reasons for not using
social media
Ann Rheum Dis 2017;76(4):712–5.

14. • All papers now available electronically
• Videos and slide shows to enhance learning
• Over 572,000 followers on Twitter
N Engl J Med 2016; 375:993-994

15. Social Learning
Graphic via Symplur.com

16. Online Journal Clubs

17. Visual Abstracts
• Easily shared via social media
• Give quick visual overview of articles
Annals of Surgery. 266(6):e46–e48, Dec 2017
https://twitter.com/jdimick1/status/
858082919050608647

18. Medical Conferences
• ACR 2016 Annual Meeting: 20% of 16,000
attendees used the meeting hashtag on Twitter
• 16.7k tweets during 5 day meeting
• Average 5 tweets per person
• 70% of tweets from physicians ACR 2017 Meeting Abstract 105

19. FOAMed
(Free Open Access Medical Education)
• The collective education tools available (for free)
on the internet: blog posts, videos, podcasts,
online courses, etc.
• Medical conversation around these resources
generally lives on Twitter

20. The Best of FOAMed
“NephMadness is a free online, CME-granting, evidenced-based,
noncommercial learning initiative that leverages the tools of social
media to teach about the latest and greatest breakthroughs in the
field of nephrology!”
https://ajkdblog.org/

21. https://ajkdblog.org/

22. • Massive number of blog
posts, online discussions
• Great use of gamification to
encourage learning
• Specialists outside of
nephrology involved
• Great Instagram account:
@nephmaddness
https://ajkdblog.org/

23. “Tweetorials”
Using “threaded tweets” to teach in a lecture format
https://twitter.com/tony_breu/status/1011316477457321986

24. Career Advancement
• Since 2016, Mayo Clinic has been using digital
and social media scholarship in consideration of
academic promotions
https://socialmedia.mayoclinic.org/
“The moral and societal duty of an academic healthcare
provider is to advance science, improve the care of his/her
patients and share knowledge.”
“A very important part of this role requires physicians to
participate in public debate, responsibly influence opinion and
help our patients navigate the complexities of healthcare.”

25. Research Dissemination
• Almetric gives real-time data on article impact online
• Journal publishers have developed promotional toolkits
for investigators to improve the reach of their articles
• Online research dissemination → increased citations
(and more importantly, increased readership/learning)

26. Research Dissemination
https://twitter.com/jeffsparks/status/1112519227263647744https://twitter.com/ACR_Journals/status/1112761542242529285

27. Professional networking
J Am Coll Radiol. 2018 Jan;15(1 Pt B):142-148.
N Engl J Med 2018; 378:2342-2345

28. Getting Started on Twitter
• Load up app, create new account.
• If you’re already set up, help your neighbor
• If you get stuck: help.twitter.com → Guides → Getting
Started & New user FAQ

29. Setting Up Twitter
1. Input your name, email, and phone number.
• I suggest @firstlast, or @drfirstlist (mine is @psufka)
2. Add a profile photo.
• You can take a selfie if you like. !
3. Write a description.
• For now, “Doctor of ___”
4. Upload a header photo.
• Can skip this for now
5. Follow other users.
• See next few slides for suggestions
6. Send a tweet.

30. “Anatomy”
of a Tweet
https://twitter.com/EBRheum/status/1111604244451344386
User
Hashtag
Other user mentioned
Link
Follow button
Media
Replies, Retweets, Favorites
Replies
Text (up to 280 characters)

31. Who to Follow?
This happened within 24 hours:
Go to my profile (@psufka) – I’ll keep a thread
with lists of people to follow pinned to my profile
for the next month or so.

32. To Do
• Send a tweet about this talk with the hashtag
#MPLSVAGrandRounds
• Eg: “My first tweet at #MPLSVAGrandRounds”
• Search for the hashtag to find your colleagues. Follow
them and reply with any comments.
• Scroll through your timeline of the first few people you
have followed. Click ”like” ♡ or “retweet” something.
• Feel free to send me any feedback directly by including
@psufka in a tweet. I’ll get a notification.