Better Health: Smart Health Commentary Better Health (TM): smart health commentary

Latest Posts

Physicians And The Evolution Of Twitter

There’s a temptation to think of Twitter as it once was.  As recently as 3 years ago there were very few physicians using Twitter.  Early physician adopters enjoyed a tighter experience than today.  Everyone followed everyone and actually finding another doctor was cause for celebration.  It was a cocktail party – less a tool as much as a place to goof off.  It was easier in many respects.

But Twitter seems to be evolving from a curious toy to a more focused space of sharing among the like-minded.  I see new docs play out this broader evolution of Twitter:  near obsessive early preoccupation gives way to the question of how it can actually work for them.  Experimentation with relationships gives way to connections that are more likely to give us what we really need.

We’ve hit a point where many physicians on Twitter are looking beyond the cocktail party.  There are simply too many of us.  As a consequence of nothing other than our numbers, we’re increasingly divergent.  Values, interests, and motivations vary – we gravitate to the like-minded.  In some respects Twitter’s evolving practicality is a good thing.  But it comes with a cost.  I don’t know how and if it can be countered.

As much as Twitter is different now compared to 3 years ago, don’t get used to it.  Things never stay the same.

*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*

Are There Too Many Health Chats On Twitter?

Is it me or has the number of medically related twitter chats just exploded in the past 4-6 weeks or so? In the past few weeks, there has been a lot of discussion about the proper and improper use of the twitter hash tag. I mean if more than 50% of the tweet are hash tags, then I gotta problem with it.

Twitter by it’s very nature is whiny. I mean, one of twitter’s first functions back in the day (in my opinion) and one of the first uses of twitter for the newer user is a place to vent. And, people complain, whine, vent about a great variety of stuff. But, not about the number of tweet chats that have been popping up recently?

Maybe I’m crazy, but will twitter ever get to the point when there are too many chats? Probably not. However, something that I have seen in the past few weeks is the selection of what I call the “golden” time of 9pm Eastern Time.

There is probably some solid data out there somewhere, but Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Family Medicine Rocks Blog - Mike Sevilla, MD*

When Is It Ok For Doctors To Write About Their Patients?


I can’t find it now, but on one of our posts somewhere MovieDoc has stated that doctors can never ethically write about their patients since they are incapable of giving truly informed consent. Besides the obvious “huh?’ response I have to the idea that patients aren’t capable of making decisions like this, I question the basic assumption that this should never happen.

The medical literature is replete with published anonymized case studies of patients with various maladies. For psychiatry in particular, early psychiatric classification was based on longitudinal descriptions of diseases. If it weren’t for the early case descriptions of Kaposi’s sarcoma in gay men published in the 1980’s, AIDS would not have been identified as a new disease. Case studies can and should be published to advance medical science. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Shrink Rap*

Social Media Users ARE The Media: Why You Can’t Keep Secrets At Medical Meetings

This NCI Cancer Bulletin article on the use of social media at this week’s American Society of Clinical Oncology is worth reading.  It showcases how a major medical organization sees social media unfolding at a national meeting.  I’ll be following #ASCO11 closely where some sources predict the Tweet count could reach 10-15,000.

What caught my eye was discussion surrounding the speaker-imposed restriction of Twitter at scientific presentations.  Apparently some meetings such as the Biology of Genomes Conference at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, presenters have to grant permission to allow the use of Twitter (this apparently will not be the case at ASCO).

This is a quote from the meeting media policy at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

Often, during the course of a meeting, a scientist will present a discovery, method, or current project that is not yet complete or published. Therefore, to prevent the premature release of confidential information, we require all media attendees to obtain permission in advance from the relevant scientist prior to reporting any spoken or printed information gleaned from the meetings. Media attendees are encouraged to approach scientists out-of-session (e.g. during coffee breaks, poster sessions, wine and cheese parties, etc.) for informal discussions, formal interviews, and/or permission to report sensitive information at the appropriate time. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*

Five Fresh Medical Bloggers

I love finding new physician voices.  Here are a few that I’ve been peeking at over the past couple months.  They’re worth checking out.

Linda Pourmassina.  Linda is an internist in Seattle and one of the finest writers in the medical blogosphere.   You can find her over at Pulsus where she offers commentary on an eclectic mix of medical goodness ranging from social media to the subtleties of patient interaction.  Really good stuff.  Check out The Internet and Delusional Thinking.  Beyond her blog, Linda’s Twitter output is the perfect balance of valuable links and dialog.  Put her in your feed and she’ll bring you good things.

Chris Porter.  Chris is a surgeon who has been writing at On Surgery, Etc. since April.  This guy has an incredible voice and offers rare insight into the experience of the surgeon.  He has a remarkable way of seeing medicine at its most granular level.  When he corrals his narrative in just the right way I expect we may see him on the new release table at Barnes & Noble.  Check out his experience as a surgeon in Guatemala.  And from the narrow column Blogger template to the liberal use of crazy images, his site offers the raw feel of some of the vintage medical bloggers.  His bio reflects the mindset of a next-gen physician: I’m Phoenix-based and world oriented.  How can you resist that? Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*

Latest Interviews

IDEA Labs: Medical Students Take The Lead In Healthcare Innovation

It’s no secret that doctors are disappointed with the way that the U.S. healthcare system is evolving. Most feel helpless about improving their work conditions or solving technical problems in patient care. Fortunately one young medical student was undeterred by the mountain of disappointment carried by his senior clinician mentors…

Read more »

How To Be A Successful Patient: Young Doctors Offer Some Advice

I am proud to be a part of the American Resident Project an initiative that promotes the writing of medical students residents and new physicians as they explore ideas for transforming American health care delivery. I recently had the opportunity to interview three of the writing fellows about how to…

Read more »

See all interviews »

Latest Cartoon

See all cartoons »

Latest Book Reviews

Book Review: Is Empathy Learned By Faking It Till It’s Real?

I m often asked to do book reviews on my blog and I rarely agree to them. This is because it takes me a long time to read a book and then if I don t enjoy it I figure the author would rather me remain silent than publish my…

Read more »

The Spirit Of The Place: Samuel Shem’s New Book May Depress You

When I was in medical school I read Samuel Shem s House Of God as a right of passage. At the time I found it to be a cynical yet eerily accurate portrayal of the underbelly of academic medicine. I gained comfort from its gallows humor and it made me…

Read more »

Eat To Save Your Life: Another Half-True Diet Book

I am hesitant to review diet books because they are so often a tangled mess of fact and fiction. Teasing out their truth from falsehood is about as exhausting as delousing a long-haired elementary school student. However after being approached by the authors’ PR agency with the promise of a…

Read more »

See all book reviews »

Commented - Most Popular Articles