Presentation 4/8/13 for Practical Pediatrics at Baystate, sponsored by Mass. Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics

1. Social media
How it can help you be a better
doctor

2. Why bother?
• Facebook: more than a billion users
• Twitter: 288 million active monthly users
(fastest growing social network in the
world)
• YouTube: 4 billion daily views, an hour of
video uploaded every second
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3. Meaning: it’s where the patients are
• Pew Internet study: 80% of those who use the
Internet look up health information online
• 35% of those who go online looking for
health information are trying to make a
diagnosis for themselves or someone else
• Of those ―online diagnosers,‖ only about
half go to a doctor
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4. And they aren’t just looking up
information…
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5. They are making health
decisions
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6. They are finding out about you.
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7. It’s not just about playing defense.
Social media has a lot to offer.
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8. Health information for both you and your
patients
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9. Opportunity to connect—and teach
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10. …and advocate!
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11. So many possibilities
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12. Facebook
• You can create a page for your practice, or
yourself (as a ―fan page‖)
• When people ―like‖ your page, your posts
automatically go to their page
• You can post, people can comment
• Do your own posts, and also provide links
• Use pictures! More
interesting, encourages clicks
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13. YouTube
• Videos as teaching tools
• Create a channel
– Can use it for linking videos to other places
• You don’t have to create your own videos—there
are plenty out there
• Creating video is easier than you think
– Flipcam, iPhone
– Keep it brief (less than 3 min-90 sec better)
– Top-level points
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14. Twitter
• Limited to 140 characters—so short bits of
information
• ―Information accelerator‖—use of links is
key
• Great for sending out information of all
kinds
• Great way to connect with people
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15. LinkedIn
• Excellent for networking
• Learning opportunities
• Less about connecting with patients—but
a great way to find out ways to connect,
and meet people who are doing what you
want to do.
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16. Practice website
• Becoming standard
• Central repository of information
– Practice information
– Clinical information
• Can be an advertisement for your practice
• Can make care more efficient
• Can be a place for blogging
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17. Blogging
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18. Why blog?
• A way to communicate with people about issues
and topics you care about, or want people to
learn about
• Allows you to react to studies and news and put
the ―spin‖ on them that you think is best
• Helps create/support your online reputation
• Can attract patients
• Good writing is helpful—but it doesn’t have to be
perfect
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19. Caveats
• You need to blog regularly.
– Consider guest blogging, or being in a rotation
• You need a platform
– Practice website? Your own blog?
• You need to write effectively
– Low (7th grade) reading level
– Short sentences
– Brief (500-900 words)
– Engaging, casual
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20. What is the problem you want to solve with
social media?
• Attracting patients
• Connecting with patients
• Networking/looking for work
• Educating patients
• Educating yourself
• Advocacy
• All of the above?
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21. Getting started
• WATCH
• See what other people are doing
• Find good websites
– Practice websites to emulate
– Websites with good health information
• Get a sense of different modalities
• Read blogs
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22. Important social media concepts
• Messaging
• Engagement
• Commitment
• Responsibility
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23. Messaging
• Brief! People have attention spans of
gnats.
• Distilled. What is the most important take-
home?
• Reading level: keep it low (5th-7th grade)
• Attention-grabbing (whenever possible)
• Use graphics/videos
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24. Engagement
• If nobody reads your
content, it isn’t useful
• Social media is all
about engagement—
think about this as you
create or share content
• What will people
respond to? (Literally)
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25. Social media (and life) is like a sandbox
• It’s not all about
you
• Play nice
• If you want people
to share your
content, share
theirs
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26. Commitment
• You get out what you put in
• Refreshed content  Engagement
• Don’t bite off more than you can chew
• Time issues
• Someone to manage?
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27. Tools
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28. Small is okay
• But…keep expectations low
• Choose modalities well
– Twitter better for intermittent content
– Facebook and blogs look silly if not updated
• Consider:
– Commenting on others’ blogs
– Doing guest blogs
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29. Responsibility = Privacy and Respect
• HIPPA—easy to comply with
• But really, more than HIPPA. Higher
standard—don’t want patients to be able
to identify themselves or others at all.
• What is your intent?
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30. Responsibility = Patient Safety
• Don’t give specific medical advice online
• Make sure patients know not to leave
urgent medical concerns on site
• Watch your feeds and comments!
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31. Responsibility = Professionalism
• Whether we like it or not, doctors are held
to a different standard
• Comments (and pictures) can be taken out
of context
• Anything that goes online stays there
• Can’t separate personal and professional
(sorry)
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32. But let’s put this in context…
• Wendy Sue Swanson: ―We are way worse
in elevators than we are online.‖
These aren’t reasons to avoid social media.
They are simply ways to use it responsibly.
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33. Go for it!
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