November 4th, 2010 by Berci in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Health Tips, Research
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Whenever I talk to doctors about using social media in medicine, they seem to think there are more cons than pros regarding this issue. I like reminding them about some major differences between 2000 and today:
| What would I do if… |
In 2000 |
Today |
| I need clinical answer |
Try to find a collegue who knows it |
Post a question on Twitter |
| I want to hear patient story about a specific condition |
Try to find a patient in my town |
Read blogs, watch YouTube |
| I want to be up-to-date |
Go to the library once a week |
Use RSS and follow hundreds of journals |
| I want to work on a manuscript with my team |
We gather around the table |
Use Google Docs without geographical limits |
Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ScienceRoll*
November 2nd, 2010 by StevenWilkinsMPH in Better Health Network, News, Opinion, Research
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Over the last year or two, lots of people have been jumping on the social media bandwagon, i.e., Twitter, Facebook, and so on. There has been a lot of talk about how social media and social networking will revolutionize healthcare, but little evidence to back this talk up. Until now, that is.
Before I get to the evidence that I referred to, I need to clarify something. The goal of social media as I understand it is to get people talking, sharing information and creating new ideas. As applied to healthcare, one of the goals of social media is to get people/patients with like medical conditions taking, sharing and supporting one another. Healthcare researchers refer to this phenomenon as peer support. Peer support is not new to healthcare. Disease-specific support groups (breast cancer, diabetes, etc.) have been around for years. “Group” physician office visits comprised of patients with the same diagnosis have been around for years as well.
The Study
Now to the evidence. As anyone with a chronic condition or who treats patient with chronic conditions knows, patient self-care is critical. Knowledge, skills and confidence are prerequisites for effective self-care management. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Mind The Gap*
October 30th, 2010 by Bryan Vartabedian, M.D. in Better Health Network, Opinion
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Recently I was speaking to some physicians about social media. As we discussed the evolution of public social platforms and physician-specific networks the question came up: “How many social networks can a doctor have?” In other words, if a doctor dedicates time to Facebook and Twitter, will he or she then also spend time on Sermo, iMedExchange, or Doximity? This is an important question if you’re in the business of attracting doctors to a specific network.
As part of the attention crash, we’re facing the reality of human bandwith. We can only socialize in so many places. I always tell physicians starting out to pick their social spaces carefully. You can only dedicate so much time to social. For me, my attention is spent here on 33 charts and on Twitter. I’ve been tempted to get into podcasting, video and other media, but time is a limited commodity. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*
October 15th, 2010 by Bryan Vartabedian, M.D. in Better Health Network, Opinion
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[Recently] some of us participated in the flagship physician Tweetchat (MDChat). Or better, I tried to participate between finishing up some calls and choking down a bean burrito.
When the idea was initially proposed to me I committed only to supporting its initiation with the occasional role of host. I’m simply overcommitted, but wanted to support Phil Baumann and those who were willing to try to break new ground. So I lurked, chewed, and pondered.
Doctors or not, everyone knows I’ve been a pretty lukewarm proponent of the tweetchat. I think they’re noisy, difficult to follow, and too abbreviated for constructive dialog. As early adopters I think we tend to put the novelty of the medium above its practicality.
With that said, chats can be fun. It’s a situation where I feel comfortable while at once restless. Kind of like at a medical staff meeting where the agenda doesn’t hold me quite as much as just being among my friends.
At the end of the day I might agree with Dr. Anonymous that the average physician new to social media might not find a twitter chat as the best way to spend a precious hour. For me that hour represents the better part of a blog post which, over the course of a month, will influence hundreds of readers and live forever.
But I suspect that there will always be those among us looking for companionship over content. And it’s hard to argue with that.
*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*
October 8th, 2010 by Bryan Vartabedian, M.D. in Better Health Network, Medblogger Shout Outs, News, Opinion, Research
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I [recently] received a press release from a friend in the Bay Area. Investigators at UCSF have published a study in the New England Journal of Medicine showing that less chemotherapy can be effective at treating some childhood cancers.
The paper was the result of an eight-year clinical study in children with neuroblastoma. In this particular population, researchers were able to reduce chemotherapy exposure by 40 percent while maintaining a 90 percent survival rate. You can read about it here.
The press release sparked a brief email exchange between me and my friend: Who might be interested in writing about this study and is there any way to get it to spread? What would make it sticky in the eyes of the public?
Here are a few ideas:
Figure out who cares. Sure it’s niche news, but there are people who would think this is pretty darn important. Think organizations centered on parents of children with cancer, adult survivors of childhood cancer, pediatric hematology-oncology physicians, pediatricians and allied professionals in pediatric medicine like nurse practitioners and hematology-oncology nurses. Networks form around these groups. Find them and seed them.
Make a video. Offer powerful, visual content beyond a press release. A four-minute clip with the principal investigator, Dr. Matthay, would be simple and offer dimension to what is now something restricted to print. The Mayo Clinic has done this really well. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*
