January 15th, 2010 by KevinMD in Better Health Network, Opinion
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Thanks to Medscape for including my take in their recent article, “Is Twitter a “must” for doctors?”
I discuss some common sense tips doctors should follow while using Twitter:
1. Patient privacy is paramount. Do not discuss individual cases or provide patient advice via Twitter.
2. Use Twitter to point your patients to trustworthy online health information sources.
3. Use Twitter as a tool to promote your practice’s brand. More and more patients are using Twitter; those who do are likely to feel positive about their physicians using it as well. More than just a fad, Pho says that Twitter is here to stay and offers tremendous potential.
4. Remind your patients using Twitter: Be careful whom you follow. Anyone can sign up for Twitter claiming to be a physician. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at KevinMD.com*
January 14th, 2010 by Berci in Better Health Network, Health Tips
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Whenever I talk about medical professionals using social media, people are surprised by what I say. Most people think they can hide online and never have to reveal their real identity. I think they are wrong. In the online world, it’s much easier to find out private information about someone who wasn’t cautious enough than in real life. A recent example includes Doctors warned of Facebook flirts (e-Health article):
The Medical Defence Union said it was aware of a number of cases where patients have attempted to proposition doctors by sending them an unsolicited message on Facebook or similar sites. The medical defence body said it would be “wholly inappropriate” to respond to a patient making an advance in such a way. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ScienceRoll*
November 18th, 2009 by Joshua Schwimmer, M.D. in Better Health Network
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Image by luc legay via Flickr
A little over a year ago, before Twitter was the tech/pop culture phenomenon it is today, doctors like myself had a problem: how do you identify other health professionals on Twitter? (At the time, there must have been at least dozens. Dozens.)
This was the first solution. In retrospect, it was hilariously cobbled-together:
This is a feed containing the conversations of all known doctors and medical students who use Twitter: http://feeds.feedburner.com/doctorsontwitter. (If that doesn’t work, you can try the original feed from Yahoo Pipes instead.) Technical details, for those interested: I used this list of doctors/medical students on Kidney Notes, ran each person’s Twitter feed through Yahoo Pipes, then burned a FeedBurner feed.
When FriendFeed debuted, I created “The Doctor’s Room,” which was populated by both Twitter feeds and RSS feeds of physicians. Unfortunately, the “room” feature was poorly designed by FriendFeed (which has since been acquired by Facebook). Like the Yahoo Pipes experiment, the FriendFeed room was an educational failure. Read more »
This post, Finding Health Care Professionals on Twitter, was originally published on
Healthine.com by Joshua Schwimmer, M.D..
November 4th, 2009 by KevinMD in Better Health Network, Opinion
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Some physicians may be hesitant to participate in social media outlets, like Facebook and Twitter.
Well, get over it.
Great post by pediatrician Bryan Vartabedian who addresses this topic. Indeed, physicians have lost control of the online message, especially with, according to recent data, 60+ percent of patients visiting the web first when looking for health information.
Instead, anti-vaccine proponents and homeopaths have embraced the Internet, and now exert tremendous influence on patients. We doctors have no one to blame but ourselves for being so slow to get online. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at KevinMD.com*
September 28th, 2009 by Berci in Better Health Network, News
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Obviously not, but it can provide us with some new solutions. That’s why I wanted to share askCH, an interesting project.
AskCH is a one-of-a-kind healthcare tool. Send a healthcare cost or definition question in the proper format, and receive the answer with a link to find detailed information!
Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ScienceRoll*
