Social media

I have a colleague who is a pediatrician in private practice in the suburbs. He has a great practice and loves his patients. One day, he walked in 15 minutes late to a 7:00 a.m. meeting we both attend. “Moms are calling early today.” Parents in his practice have learned to bypass their elaborate phone triage system. They have learned that if you press “1” for emergency, an actual doctor ...

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Patients have a lot of choices when it comes to physicians.  Making sure your online profile is up to date, complete, and contains these five items will improve the chances that a website visitor will become a patient. Create a personal connection. Having good rapport with patients is important, and that process starts before patients ever walk in the door. How often have you seen a physician bio that only contains a single, ...

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Early this month, Joanna Gaines, co-host of HGTV’s popular Fixer Upper, shared her pregnancy news with the world via a baby bump photo and an ultrasound, both posted to Instagram. The congratulations began pouring in from excited fans. But the conversation took a dark turn when a physician commented that the ultrasound appeared to ...

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There is a movement afoot. I can feel it. I can see it. Women in medicine are no longer going to tolerate the subtle and not so subtle discrimination that has stymied their career growth. They are not going to be complacent while their male colleagues are paid higher salaries, offered speaking engagements and research opportunities and promoted at a greater rate. Women in medicine are pulling together in an ...

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#Tweetiatrician is a common hashtag used by pediatricians as a way I assumed to find advocates for children’s issues. Recently, I used this hashtag to start a new Twitter account. I sought educated dialogue on Medicaid, health care reform, vaccination, and other pediatric topics. I am a pediatric emergency medicine physician and consider myself a strong advocate for children and seldom agree with any political party. My advocacy work in many forms ...

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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, “
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Recently, I learned that YouTube star Stevie Ryan completed suicide. As she found her fame via social media, her death has also been the focus of the virtual world. Her death spawns a tremendous amount of questions that are left unanswered regarding why and how did this happen. In case you missed the details of the story, Stevie completed suicide by hanging. She had tweeted the day before that, "The man ...

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Recently, Twitter exploded with angry commentary directed at the American Diabetes Association (ADA) after the organization actively attempted to censor what was posted on Twitter during their annual sessions in San Diego. The fiasco began when an attendee posted a picture of slides on Twitter — in an attempt to “live Tweet” during a session on the recommended #ADA2017 hashtag. The @AmDiabetesAssn Twitter feed then ...

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Attendees at the American Diabetes Association’s Scientific Sessions in San Diego this year — many of them young researchers who are active on social media — were surprised to be greeted with the following: “Thanks for joining us at #2017ADA! Photography isn’t allowed during presentations — we’d appreciate it if you’d delete this tweet.” For many, the essence of gathering at conferences is the sharing of scientific information, a peek at ...

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