‘Are you still wasting your time on Twitter?’
What surprised me was that this (rhetorical) question was put to me, not by an elder lemon colleague approaching retirement, but a freshly minted colleague in his early thirties. Then I saw this Tweet from the Med2.0 conference;
Audience member says 86% of docs surveyed in a large medical practice feelsocial media is a waste of time #med2
— Pat Rich (@cmaer) September 15, 2012
As someone who spends a lot of his time on Twitter, it hurts a little to think that the majority of my colleagues might think I might be wasting my time.
Engaging in health related activities on social media channels is the most important thing I have done for my medical education since completing my specialist training. It has renewed my fascination for healthcare in a way I haven’t felt since I was a medical student and doing so, has undoubtedly quelled a mid-life ennui with my career. It has transformed the way I learn (where I had all but stopped learning) and introduced me to new an interesting friends.
I readily admit that I have also become somewhat evangelical about my conversion to this new found faith; I have even taken to trying to convert unsuspecting medical buddies of mine to the raptures of social media over a beer or at dinner parties. It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if some of them were avoiding me.
I’m not naiive though. I believe that most doctors of my generation are unlikely to embrace social media in the way I have. Unlike the current crop of medical students and graduates (for whom on-line life is a natural extension of themselves) my generation will see the learning curve will be seen as too steep and too time consuming, and the medium untested and fraught with pitfalls.
Those of us who have already seen the light have a responsibility to spread the word and we’ve got to start somewhere. If the above commentator is right, 14% of doctors don’t think its a waste of time.
Now if I could only spot them at parties….
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[...] Ronan Kavanagh expresses his disappointment with colleagues who ask, “Are you still wasting your time on Twitter?” According to ...
Last year I wrote a paper on doctors use of social media. There are many barriers , the primary one being the perception that doctors should be too busy for such frivoloty. However, social media is a tool for engagement and many doctors have significantly improved communications with their patients by sharing information about procedures in blog posts or via videos. Patients want information, and if they can’t get what they need before or during in a brief appointment with their doctor, they will turn to the internet where mis-information abounds. Doctors have an opportunity to inform and educate their patients – and learn from them as well.
Heather, I agree with you. One reason I intend to continue as a rheumatologist using social media is the mis-information that exists on the internet. I think more rheumatologists (and other doctors) need to be involved to provide more balanced views.
Thanks for sharing another thoughtful reflection. I think that some doctors on Twitter are simply ‘pushing’ educational tweets without interacting with their followers. Whilst I enjoy reading some of the curated educational material they are pointing to, I find it a bit off putting when they don’t engage more deeply. I think we need a ‘critical mass’ of twittering doctors in our specialty to really get things going. It is a shame so few trainees have engaged as I’d expect them to lead the way. I think you have a great twitter style so do keep up the good work, anyway!
From a chronic Crohn’s Disease patient of almost 30 years with 20 surgeries and 200 hospitalizations under my belt (actually slightly above my belt!), I am so optimistic about healthcare and a possible cure for Crohn’s Disease when I read a social media communication like this one from a doctor like YOU. THANK YOU for caring so much about your science and craft that you never stop learning because patients everywhere benefit.
To understand if it is time well spent, we must first define the purpose of the activity. The liberal and non-specific ways in which so many talk about ‘using social media’ undermines our ability to have very productive conversations in healthcare and medicine professions. In other words it is tough to talk about the value proposition and benefits of using social media if we are not specific about the ‘use’ that we are considering (or the specific ‘social media’ applications that may offer the benefit).
I was in the room when the comment about ’86% of docs in one group practice consider it a waste of time’ and I later spoke at length with the doc who made the comment. We developed a game plan to help him move the needle…and it begins by being very specific in how these new technologies could be used…and then systematically introducing pilot opportunities to use the technologies to serve a purpose.
In my data of nearly 500 docs (to be published later this month in JMIR) more than 60% of docs felt that social media applications are in fact ‘an essential use of time’ as a means of supporting lifelong learning. By giving physicians a very specific purpose, the study respondents were able to recall or envision specific benefits…I like to think of this as proof of principle.
Thanks Brian. I’m feeling better already. I agree entirely. When I’m speaking about SocMed to other doctors I tend to describe how it has impacted on my learning. That is, for most, the hook that will engage them. All of us struggle to filter the volume of medical information channelled at us and for me, SocMed is the ultimate democratic filter.
Looking forward to seeing your paper and to the publication date of your new book SocialQI
Gr8 piece Ronan… and thank you Brian for your (always) informative comments.
I agree wholeheartedly… I receive 100+ emails a week from people around the globe thanking me for taking the time to interact, or for providing content via my blog or a curated article. I derive an immense level of satisfaction from those emails and letters. Knowing you are making a difference in aiding a patient navigate a cold, complex, fragmented system goes a very long way to alleviating many of my own trials and tribulations I face on a daily basis trying to navigate the red tape on my own end :-)
Howard Luks MD
As a patient, I wish more of my doctors engaged in social media as you do. I can only think of three of my 19 doctors who blog or use twitter, and two of those seem to be more about advertising/gaining patients than in-depth education (though there is some educational material for patients). Of course, some may be pseudo-pseudoanonymous, as I am.
The best doctors–and I’ve had many more thanks to insurance changes, people moving/retiring, and best meeting complex medical needs–demonstrate some kind of active commitment to ongoing learning and teaching of others well beyond what’s required by continuing education credits. Even if they don’t participate in social media, they’re volunteering, teaching at the medical school, or learning about illnesses beyond their immediate specialty. They show curiosity about the world around them, studying medicine in literature or telling me about books they’ve read that have influenced their diagnostics (such as *The Checklist Manifesto*). They want to know what I’m reading and why. They show more compassion because they understand more of patient lives than what can be shown in a 15-minute appointment, how severe illness pervades so many aspects of our lives and results in decisions that at face value don’t seem to make sense but that make perfect sense when one considers deep economic implications, the exhaustion/stress and even further illness caused by making so many appointments, transportation difficulties, difficulty and extensive time spent in securing medical equipment, etc.
To maximize patient care and to understand the whole patient, medicine needs to become increasingly interdisciplinary in the way that academia is doing. Social media–or social engagement in a broader sense–offers the opportunity for people to maximize learning with minimum time, to discover many, many new ideas quickly and then delve into some of them. For those physicians who do not have time, they probably have to work too many hours and are at risk of severe burnout, but social media could relieve some of that burnout.
Twitter to me is somewhat of a lonely hearts club, but by that I don’t mean the romantically challenged, more the sole employee or contractor working from their own space. For them twitter is a great way to enlarge their team and engage with more colleagues and to grab a slice of that social banter that other folk get working within larger teams/organisations.
I would have thought on that basis, it is excellent for docs and dentists. My wife doesn’t use it but should, as her social interaction at work is currently restricted to “open wide”…
I like the idea of it being a like a Lonely Hearts Club Liam. Although geographically my community is small, social media has allowed me to part of a much bigger community by linking up with other ‘lonely hearts’ around the world. No longer alone (LOL) etc….
I enjoy a social media master’s lively, informative news & views from small animal veterinary medecine.
His style is natural and vibrant, humourous… well worth a browse
‘Pete Wedderburn@petethevet I’m a companion animal veterinarian who likes to talk to the world.’
there is a definite gringe factor assoicated with the almost evangelical zeal with which some social media ‘experts’ try to convert the ‘laggards’. The reality is that while virtual communities have been around since the early 90s the technology has only been easily accessible and useable for a relatively short time. The uptake of virtual communities among potential members has not been studied well (research cited above being an exception) and so we know very little. I believe we havent reached critical mass yet and therefore are only just approaching the up slope of Roger’s S curve and are about to jump Moore’s chasm.
In order to get those who are not into using social media we need to show them there are many different ways to particpate as there are social media platforms. Its not all about tweet all day and all night.
So folks its research, research, research
I agree entirely Kaye. I’m very much aware of the pitfalls of getting caught up in the hype. I tend not to recommend ‘Twitter for the sake of Twitter’ but talk about how new technologies have altered the way I learn and also the way I keep my patients up to date. I’d love to see some research on the effectiveness of social media platforms to aid dissemination (and filtering) of medical information but it works for me.
I think Brian McGowan’s comments bleow sum it up nicely.
Here you go Kaye – hot off the press from Brian McGowan and Bryan Vartabedian in the Jornal of Medical Internet Research http://www.jmir.org/2012/5/e117/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+JMedInternetRes+%28Journal+of+Medical+Internet+Research+%28atom%29%29