social media: what is it, anyway?

Social Media: What is it, anyway?

Amy VernonHasai Inc.

Disclosure

• I have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Learning Objectives• Defining social media.• Social media’s role in the medical community.• Benefits and drawbacks of social media for medical professionals.

Changing How We Communicate

• IMMEDIACY: “I tweeted and no one answered.”

• INTIMACY: “Someone with XYZ Corp. personally responded!”

• ATTENTION: “I just ran a 5K for the first time!”

Everybody’s Doing It

• 87% of physicians use social media personally• 67% of physicians use social media

professionally• 1/3 of doctors received Facebook friend

requests from patients• ¾ of those doctors rejected the requests

Source: QuantiaMD survey, August 2011

Source: QuantiaMD survey

The Value for Patients

• Doctors find value for patients. “Would you recommend that apatient participate in anonline patient community?”

Source: QuantiaMD survey

Very social, but not with patients

Source: QuantiaMD survey

If everyone’s doing it, why aren’t you?

Source: QuantiaMD survey

Ah, liability

• The cardinal rule of social media: Don’t be stupid. I.E.: Don’t say anything online you wouldn’t want everyone in the world to know.

• Rhode Island doctor reprimanded after inadvertently identifying a patient in a Facebook post.

• JAMA study identified 3% of physician tweets as containing “unprofessional content”

Sources: Amednews.com,Boston.com, News.com.au

Oh, like this?

Source: Twitter.com

Nonmaleficence

• Works the same in social media. First, do no harm.

• If you think before you post, you should be just fine.

OK, but still, WHY?

• People are talking about their medical problems online.

• Celebrities talk about their medical experiences & give “advice.”

• People listen to celebrities, and while they may be well-meaning, they may have no idea what they’re talking about.

Is this who you want parents to take medical advice from?

How about this guy?

How about Chrissie?

It’s where the patients are

• Be available. Offer your expert knowledge in cases where possible.

• Don’t diagnose – but offer to suggest resources to look up information.

• Don’t respond to the “trolls” – the people whose sole meaning in life is defined by baiting people into arguments online.

?s

• Amy Vernon• mail@amyvernon.net• Twitter: http://twitter.com/amyvernon• Facebook: http://facebook.com/amyvernon• LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/amyvernon