Social media

By now, we have all seen the cell phone footage of a doctor being dragged off a United Airlines flight. I’ve seen it on Twitter, on Facebook, on cable news and read about it in the printed press. I’ve been texted links to the various videos each from different angles but all showing the same images — a man being dragged away with a bloody face. This has prompted quite ...

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Look me up. I’m on Twitter (@MattDynamic). This isn’t particularly remarkable. In fact, there are 313 million other active Twitter users. But for me, it is remarkable and a major departure from my past behavior. As a resident, I am bombarded by messages about the dangers of Twitter and, more broadly, social media. I have sat through many HIPAA and human resource meetings with dire warnings to not post ...

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I have been a member of a social network for physicians since 2008 or 2009. It’s a network that bills itself as a “virtual doctors’ lounge” and “voice of physicians.”  I joined because I thought it would be a great place to continue to interact with my peers, after I’d left the collegiality of medical school and residency behind for private practice. I’m not sure what subset of physicians participates, but ...

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During sports physical appointments, I routinely address preventive health topics that range from asking about alcohol, drugs, and sexuality, to addressing accident prevention and updating immunizations.  At one such appointment recently, a young male teen was due for two routine vaccines.  The mother accompanying him had no concerns about one of the vaccines, but expressed concern about the other. A friend had recently shared information on Facebook about how the ...

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As I met with the vice dean of academic affairs to discuss my readiness for promotion from assistant to associate professor of pediatrics, I led with the usual list of accomplishments. After all, I thought I was pretty well rounded, with achievements in teaching, patient care, institutional service, quality improvement, and research. Unfortunately, this meeting was not going as I had hoped and I sensed ambivalence from the other end ...

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This foreign body was removed from a non-healing abdominal wall incision in an elderly lady with many comorbidities and previous operations. It was a rigid plastic tube which was 7 cm long and 2 to 3 mm in diameter. There were four transverse grooves at either end. Physicians caring for her were unable to identify it. One of them emailed me the photos ...

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When it comes to social media, oversharing is the new norm. When #flu season comes around, everyone on Twitter becomes inundated with talk of runny noses, strangers sneezing on their morning commute bus ride, and avoidance of the airport. People update their statuses on their interactions, frustrations, struggles and even locations. When a friend is not feeling well, they may post about it on social media and get an instant ...

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Are you 100 percent sure your customers know where you are located? If you are like me, you think the answer is an obvious "yes." But in reality, I did not have a clue because I wasn't aware of local SEO. SEO, traffic and ranking on the "first page of Google" are what marketing agencies stress to physicians, but I found out there is a side branch of SEO called local ...

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I was called at 4:30 a.m. for a patient with tachycardia in the hospital, and as I logged into my EMR from home, I saw this on Twitter: https://twitter.com/EM_Educator/status/759297946160656384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw In under two hours, there were 15 retweets, 44 "likes," and 19 comments that appeared on Twitter (so far), most wishing the patient the best, looking forward to pictures of the angiogram, etc. This is the lovely world of social media, but it also demonstrates his ...

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