Greg Matthews

Gwyneth Paltrow and the New York Times should take Dr. Jen Gunter seriously

Greg Matthews

Social Media in Medicine

August 6, 2017

There was an interesting piece published in the Style section of the New York Times this weekend; I was tipped to it by Bryan Vartabedian. If you’re a health care geek, that section may not be on your “must read” list (I know it isn’t; will explain below), so let me bring you up to speed. On July 29th, Katie Rosman published a piece entitled, “A Doctor …

2015’s biggest health story was broken by a doctor, not a reporter

Greg Matthews

Social Media in Medicine

March 6, 2015

Measles Makes an Unwelcome Visit to Disneyland

Health Alert after Disneyland linked to measles outbreak

Mickey, Minnie and measles for nine Disneyland tourists

The headlines from January 7th and 8th told an increasingly serious story about America’s vaccine civil war — a story that was to explode in the weeks ahead. We’ve come to expect that kind of story to be uncovered by a major news network with expertly trained, …

Tracking cancer conversations online: The Social Oncology Project 2013

Greg Matthews

Social Media in Medicine

June 7, 2013

As some 30,000 doctors, patient advocates, healthcare companies and journalists descended on Chicago for ASCO, there was a great deal of anticipation about what new research would be presented, and what kind of conversation and controversy might arise as a result.

That anticipation, it turns out, requires some patience, filtering, and a really big net. In fact, the amount of clinical data available in oncology has increased exponentially over the last …

Physician use of Twitter: Examining the data

Greg Matthews

Social Media in Medicine

October 16, 2012

It’ll be no surprise to the readers of this blog that physicians’ use of Twitter and other social media has been exploding over the last couple of years. But it may surprise you to know how hard it is to really analyze that data.

Last year Dr. Katherine Chretien of the VA Medical Center in Washington, DC, published an eye-opening study in a JAMA letter. Until that point, …