Even if you’re not involved on social media as a business, your employees or staff are more than likely on social media in their personal lives. And even innocent-seeming posts, tweets, pins or shares can leads to big repercussions if they are perceived as violating patient confidentiality. It is because of this that every medical office needs to set a social media policy to avoid any privacy or HIPAA violations.
First ...
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“Doctor’s office; please hold.”
You’ll never hear that when you call me. Never. You’ll also never get an automated answering system (I’m just referring to office hours, of course. Evenings and weekends the phone goes to Google Voice. More on that below.) We are also in the middle of a communication revolution. There are now so many other ways patients ...
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The use of social media is a tricky business. A recent Wall Street Journal article points out the challenges that CEOs and business leaders face when using Twitter. Many CEOs and other executives relate stories of personal attacks and cyber stalking from disgruntled customers, former employees or competitors. Some have opted out of the social media space due to specific legal concerns. Other very successful business leaders continue ...
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By now, it’s common knowledge that people should be careful about what they post to social media sites — especially job seekers. But if you’re a resident or physician, you need to be especially careful because of HIPAA.
Again, this seems like common sense. But the more popular social media becomes, the more the lines are blurred. For most people, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and other sites are a part of day-to-day life. It’s easy ...
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Anyone working in the pharma industry will know it has been a tough few years. Dwindling innovation in the drug pipelines, the impact of global economic pressures and an increasing global focus on healthcare cost containment have all combined in a perfect storm for the sector often regarded as recession-proof.
As the backdrop to all this, social media has rapidly been finding its place as a powerful media in sectors selling ...
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Though I've personally been writing online for coming up on eleven years—basically the span of my entire medical career—I've never purported to be a pundit or expert when it comes to the topic of social media in medicine. In some ways actually, I feel like Willy Loman, who built his little house in the middle of a field and later found himself surrounded by skyscrapers. But the Internet ...
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It happened exactly one week ago today. I was sleepily putting my phone down to take a shower after a long night of call. I can't explain the exact sequence of events, but in the blink of an eye my mobile fell into a full sink of water. I grabbed it with lightning fast reflexes and blotted it dry with a towel. As I expected, it was dead.
After an extensive ...
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Key opinion leaders (KOL) are still one of the most important corner stones for the marketing machines of pharmaceutical companies. Their network, expertise, reach and authority is what pharma is interested in. We’ve written about KOL stardom in the past and how to attain it. In this post I’d like to take a closer look at the implications social media has on KOL’ism.
First off, let me tell you one ...
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The patient satisfaction industry needs to be disrupted.
This old, legacy industry, with it's outdated and overpriced technology needs a serious makeover. I work for a large physician group that uses a well-established patient satisfaction vendor. And I have had no end of frustration trying to figure out how the data I get back can be used to actually improve my practice and the overall patient experience.
Don't get me wrong; I ...
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Traditionally, a physician’s reputation was best established and passed along by word of mouth. Discussions among friends or at church, sporting events or civic groups often provided the information necessary for potential patients to choose a healthcare provider. Today, most patients and consumers of healthcare get information about medical conditions and physicians online.
Some ...
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-Eric Topol, MD, author of The Creative Destruction of Medicine
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