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Tweet This! Social Media for the Medical Professional

AACPDM Milwaukee 2013

Disclosure Information AACPDM 67th Annual Meeting October 16-19, 2013

Speaker Name: Jilda Vargus-Adams MD MSc

Disclosure of Relevant Financial Relationships

I have the following financial relationships to disclose:

Grant/Research support from: Cerebral Palsy International Research Foundation, Ipsen

Disclosure of Off-Label and/or investigative uses:

I will not discuss off label use and/or investigational use in my presentation

Objectives

� Describe Twitter, Facebook and other social media in common usage

� List several reasons why a physician or medical professional would utilize social media to enhance their practice

� Employ their knowledge to create an effective online presence

Medical Professionals and Social Media

�  Why social media? �  Communicate with patients �  Build practice �  Share information/influence others

�  How patients and parents already use social media

�  Getting Started

�  Considerations – legal, HIPAA and their influences

�  Challenges and Pitfalls

Infographic here Why Social Media?

Happens in Real Time

Open and Transparent

Dynamic Community Focused

Builds Relation-

ships

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Current uses of Social Media in Healthcare

�  Mostly: wellness, employee recruitment, marketing

�  Sometimes: fostering communities, managing reputation

�  Only occasionally: real research in public health �  Adderall use �  Facebook interest in active versus passive pursuits and

obesity �  Tracking flu on Twitter and Google �  Think of the possibilities to identify and target

intervention!

Social Media – for fun or profit?

Who do you want to reach?

• Other professionals

• Parents • Patients • The media

What do you want to convey?

• Education – wellness, monitoring, evidence

• Advertising –mission, services, recruiting

• Support – engage others, introduce peers, collaborate

• Research – recruitment, public health studies

• Opinion

Before you start, consider your goals

Social Media – more than just fun

�  What do you need to be successful?

�  Resources? Priorities? Goals? Outcomes?

�  Match your goals and resources to the right efforts

Getting off the ground…

�  Who will do the work? �  Difference between doing it yourself and �  Having someone who is paid to do it �  Personal versus organizational accounts

�  What needs to be done �  It takes time and creativity – “a process, not an event” �  Choose where to focus your efforts �  Be a community member – engage and do your part �  It’s a dialogue, not a monologue

�  Frequency of posts �  Quality of posts �  Have good manners

Social Media – what is in it for you

� Feedback! � Good � Bad � Available to others (but that is happening

anyway!)

� Building connections � To you � To your organization

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Tips to Social Media Productivity

Connect everything you do

• HootSuite (just one example) – basic is free • FB and Twitter are linked • Can use multiple profiles •  Schedule or time your posts • Track and analyze traffic on your networks

Take advantage of the platforms •  Look for quality connections

• Who follows your followers? This expands your reach • Choose what works

• Twitter= newswire, Facebook=chat, Blog=stories • Everyone loves funny and heart-warming

Tips to Social Media Productivity Content Matters

� Use other people’s content (websites, retweets, publications)

� Don’t be too picky

� Do what is well-received and popular �  Creative and interesting �  Useful, funny, brief �  3-5 minute videos are great

� Keep it coming – be predictable (not too predictable)

Common Concerns with Social Media

�  Liability �  Attempt to minimize risk �  Consider copying a big institution’s disclaimer

�  Bad reviews/critical comments �  Monitor and respond – or block comments �  Remove anything that looks more like an advertisement

�  Privacy �  Websites and blogs are ‘safer’ �  Nothing is private �  Don’t post anything that is questionable. Ever.

Recommendations from the American College of Physicians/ Federation of State Medical Boards �  Physicians should keep their professional and personal personas separate. Physicians

should not “friend” or contact patients through personal social media.

�  Physicians should not use text messaging for medical interactions even with an established patient except with extreme caution and consent by the patient.

�  E-mail or other electronic communications should only be used by physicians within an established patient-physician relationship and with patient consent.

�  Situations in which a physician is approached through electronic means for clinical advice in the absence of a patient-physician relationship should be handled with judgment and usually should be addressed with encouragement that the individual schedule an office visit or, in the case of an urgent matter, go to the nearest emergency department.

�  Establishing a professional profile so that it “appears” first during a search, instead of a physician ranking site, can provide some measure of control that the information read by patients prior to the initial encounter or thereafter is accurate.

�  Many trainees may inadvertently harm their future careers by not responsibly posting material or actively policing their online content. Educational programs stressing a pro-active approach to digital image (online reputation) are good forums to introduce these potential repercussions.

Social Media and Physicians’ Online Identity Crisis

�  Matthew DeCamp, MD, PhD; Thomas Koenig, MD; and Margaret Chisolm, MD - of Johns Hopkins University JAMA 2013

It isn't feasible to separate personal and professional identities

�  Operationally, anyone can use the internet to connect an individual’s ‘separate’ accounts.

�  Some physicians disagree with the separation as artificial or creating barriers with other

�  Personal and professional identities are intertwined regardless

�  It is taxing to try to maintain two separate identities due to "psychological or physical burden”

Real World Medical Social Media

�  Tour of Social Media in Action in Healthcare

�  Websites, Twitter feeds, Facebook pages

�  Ways to leverage social media to meet goals of practitioners, clinical programs and practices, institutions

�  Effectiveness and impact

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Success in Social Media and Healthcare websites

Twitter Successes

@TheKidsDoctor @bengoldacre @KevinMD @SeattleMamaDoc

Drmikesevilla Dr.Mehmet Oz

Facebook Successes

Hands-on Social Media Workshop

�  Twitter 101

�  Set up Twitter accounts

�  Discuss how to build a Twitter audience/messages

�  Look at Twitter Feed for AACPDM13