April 11th, 2011 by Bryan Vartabedian, M.D. in Medblogger Shout Outs, Research
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It seems for many doctors Twitter activity is an outpost connected to some other online place. 48% of physicians on Twitter link to their blog according to Katherine Chretien’s recent study published in JAMA. Doctors apparently understand that different types of information flow better in different channels.
If you had asked me I would have estimated that this Twitter-blog association was much lower. Of course I like to believe that I understand the social doctor better than I actually do. And this is why we need original research like Katherine Chretien’s.
*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*
April 8th, 2011 by PhilBaumannRN in Opinion
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“The world will be better if you share more.” That’s what Mark Zuckerberg claims. And it’s part of a general philosophy of many fans of social media: that they help us to be more “social”, friendlier, cooperative, collaborative…in other words better.
But what – in truth – is the default mode of social media? On the surface, one would think “social”. That can’t be true though, for no technologies have social implanted in them – by definition, human-social belongs to humans.
So when I dip into my Twitter stream, for instance, I see huge volumes of people saying nice things, quoting positive aphorisms, replying to each other with accolades. If you didn’t know any better, you might conclude these are conversations between people who’ve know each other for decades. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Phil Baumann*
April 4th, 2011 by Michael Sevilla, M.D. in Medblogger Shout Outs, Opinion
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Shout out to @DanaMLewis for pointing out this post from Mashable entitled, “Why Curation Is Just As Important As Creation.” When people are starting out in social media creation, whether it be blogging, or podcasting, or whatever – the phrase always comes up – “Content Is King.” But is content really king anymore?
Now, I certainly wasn’t the first physician blogger, but I would probably consider myself “in those early days.” I mean, starting in 2006 was a few years ago. Back then, writing every single day was imperative. And, the way that you were judged were the amount of comments that you received. I mean, this was in the days before facebook and twitter, when the comment section of the blog was the only way to give feedback publically.
Back then, the way to make a name for yourself was to have the home base of the blog, and that’s how people knew you. Now, with so much content out there, people are overwhelmed and just cannot read everything that they want to read. I definitely can relate to this.
Now, many people are becoming “internet famous” by just sharing through their twitter or facebook stream – the items which they think are important. Maybe, sometimes, not even creating a bit of content on their own. Does this make them a second class citizen in the social media world – not anymore.
I agree with the assertion that being the “information maven” – meaning evaluating social media information – meaning being a curator – instead of a social media creator – this will be very important in the days ahead. Am I wrong, let me know in the comments below – or on twitter, or on facebook, or other social media way…
*This blog post was originally published at Family Medicine Rocks Blog - Mike Sevilla, MD*
March 30th, 2011 by PhilBaumannRN in Opinion, True Stories
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Dear @Twitter,
I so totally know how this sounds to write to a service, but I must confess: your little wings have changed the trajectory of my life and – for the most part – I think it’s been for the best.
I’ve been around for over 40 years, have seen many things, met all sorts of people and have – mostly – enjoyed my life. But I think every several hundred years, a tiny and almost insignificant tool comes out of nowhere and changes the world – like the wheel and zero, both of which are truly “nothing” (both are each shaped the same way). And yet the each not only changed the course of civilizations but also created them. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Phil Baumann*
March 17th, 2011 by Jeffrey Benabio, M.D. in Opinion
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I recently wrote a paper on social media with some of my colleagues at Kaiser Permanente: Ted Eytan, MD @tedeytan, Rahul Parikh, MD @docrkp, Vince Golla @vincegolla, and Sara Stein, MD @sarasteinmd. In the article, “Social Media and the Health System,” we argue that the benefits of engaging patients and colleagues in social media outweigh potential risks.
The two most common reasons that physicians resist participating on blogs, Twitter and Facebook are: 1. Fear of liability. 2. Lack of compensation for the time invested.
If we would like more physicians to be part of the conversation, then we’ll need to find ways to overcome these barriers.
What has your experience been like interacting with physicians on social media? Is there a place for physicians on sites such as Twitter and Facebook?
For physicians reading this post, you can also join the over 160 others who have commented on this article on Sermo.
*This blog post was originally published at The Dermatology Blog*
It seems for many doctors Twitter activity is an outpost connected to some other online place. 48% of physicians on Twitter link to their blog according to Katherine Chretien’s recent study published in JAMA. Doctors apparently understand that different types of information flow better in different channels.
