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Should Hospitals Manage Their Physicians’ Online Reputations?

I spoke to a group of academic physicians recently.  Afterward I was and asked, “Shouldn’t my hospital be responsible for my digital footprint?  I don’t have time to look after that sort of thing.  And wouldn’t it make sense for them to promote my research?”

4 thoughts:

1.  Online reputation management of academic physicians should be an individual, not institutional, responsibility. The question reflects a belief that your reputation is the job of “the marketing people.”  No institution will ever be as invested in your future as you are.  While there are hospitals that do a good job supporting their faculty and staff, you can’t assume it to be the case.  No one looks after you like you.

2.  Dig your well before you’re thirsty. That’s the name of a brilliant pre-digital book written by Harvey Mackey.  He suggested that the time to invest in relationships is before you need them.  Medicine is changing fast and you’ll never know how long you’ll be where you’re at.  Better yet, you never know what opportunities could come your way when people find you.  And if you want to experience the land before time when people used colored pencils, Rolodexes, and rotary phones, read Dig Your Well. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*

Can A Simple List Of Questions Improve Doctor-Patient Communication?

The blog, Shots, posted a question primer to prepare patients for medical office visits with their doctors. A reaction to this appeared on Glass Hospital, where John Schumann offered his own wry version of the question list. My less wry, and more dry response appears below.

While I agree with Shots that education is power, a closer look at the question list demonstrates that the intent to educate may obfuscate instead.

First, the post is entitled, Ten Questions to Ask Your Doctor, suggesting that patients arrive at their physician’s office Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at MD Whistleblower*

Social Media Footprint: How Concerned Should Medical Professionals Be?

Hey Docs out there! What if your patients found out about your most embarrassing moment from college? What if they saw a picture of it? I was watching and listening to one of my favorite technology shows over the weekend called “The Tech Guy” with tech journalist Leo Laporte.

In the brief video here, you’ll see the host take a call from an attending physician. The caller stated that back before medical school, he posed for PlayGirl magazine and now some of those pics are showing up on websites and the caller was trying to figure out how to have them taken down. It sounds like the pictures were taken in the pre-internet days. For the full exchange, click here and fast forward to the time 13:21hrs on the clock behind the host.

This call opened up the larger issue of Online Reputation which has been talked about in Health Care Social Media circles for a long time. But, it is interesting seeing what this non-medical tech journalist (and the caller) says about it: Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Family Medicine Rocks Blog*

Surgeons Must Overcome A Bad Reputation

It seems to me this topic of surgeons and their lack of civility gets pulled out on a fairly regular basis.  This latest discussion in the news media is due to a short article in the current Archives of Surgery (full reference below).

Surgeons as a group have a reputation (which even nice ones have trouble overcoming) of arrogance and incivility.

The authors, Klein and Forni, of this article state (bold emphasis is mine):

Uncivil behavior is so present in society at large that we should not be surprised to find it among health care workers. This article is meant to raise the awareness of the costs—both in dollars and in human misery—of incivility in the practice of medicine by looking in particular at the case of surgeons.

Uncivil behavior brings misery wherever it occurs.  If the individual tends to behave in an uncivil fashion prior to medical school and prior to residency, Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Suture for a Living*

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