Surgeons and social media

[thedrjojo]

http://bulletin.facs.org/2015/08/su...ential-part-of-contemporary-surgical-practice

Given that we are all on Sdn, clearly we are biased, but what is everyone's opinion/take/experience with this? I am not that active in surgery on twitter/facebook/YouTube, but one of my coresidents is huge into it, does a bunch of tweeting including the international journal club mentioned in the bulletin (I think she is involved in the organization of this at acs this year too). Our department has a twitter feed (plugging @njmsdeptsurgery for any potential applicants out there) which we post department updates as well as resident social pictures since the comradery is a huge aspect of our residency.

Threads like the consult thread here is a perfect example of both the good (sharing the experiences and learning) and the bad (possible HIPPA violations) with social media

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[SLUser11]

It is the future, whether we like it or not.

Social media, particularly Twitter currently, has an impressive reach, and can be used for networking, patient education, marketing, etc. Within academic medicine, it allows you to be buddies with surgeons you typically do not have access to, etc.

However, the dangers are immense. In the current "outrage culture," a single seemingly-innocent online comment can go viral, and extensively damage the surgeon's reputation.

Overall, surgeons have never before been this transparent or accessible. It will help some and hurt others. Our behavior is more scrutinized, but those on the front end of the learning curve can use social media to their great benefit. My personal opinion is that all surgeons, young and old, have a responsibility to at least register and monitor their online persona. The most dangerous online profiles are those that are poorly policed by the surgeon (e.g. Facebook profiles that are never used, but are "public" and contain inappropriate pictures with the surgeon tagged, etc).

There's some excellent research on the subject from some pretty bad@$$ surgeons if you use pubmed. Some even better stuff from last year's APDS is coming very soon.

 

[Winged Scapula]

We (well me, since none of my partners are "into" it) use it for marketing and education for our patients. However security settings have to be tight (i.e., no posting comments on our FB page, no tagging of us allowed without permission) and I have to remember that I am representing our group as a whole so I don't post potentially politically volatile comments, links or pictures. I police the FB and Twitter feed on a daily basis and check my personal on-line profile at least every few weeks.

I learned something interesting a few weeks ago: when a patient "checks in" to our practice on FB, I can read their comments on their FB page. I usually scan and make sure the comments are positive (not sure what I would do if they weren't - confront the patient and say I was reading their posts? Sounds a little weird.). Recently a patient checked in and her friends were posting things like, "OMG praying for you", "Hope you're ok, what's going on" etc. The patient was being seen for a benign issue without even a whiff of malignant concern. Not once did she comfort her friends and tell them that there was nothing to worry about; she also revealed stuff about her family history which she hadn't told me. Felt odd that I was reading the transaction and somewhat miffed that she would let her friends worry. Guess she liked the attention.

 

[Pir8DeacDoc]

Attention ****** on social media? I'm shocked

 

[thedrjojo]

Attention ****** on social media? I'm shocked

Right up a surgeons alley

 

[thedrjojo]

In response to #ilooklikeanengineer (which trended because some controversy with a female engineer), the women of surgery are taking to Twitter of #ilooklikeasurgeon. I figure this thread is new enough to hijack it with this

 

[Winged Scapula]

In response to #ilooklikeanengineer (which trended because some controversy with a female engineer), the women of surgery are taking to Twitter of #ilooklikeasurgeon. I figure this thread is new enough to hijack it with this

Ha ha...yep I posted on our feed.

 

[thedrjojo]

Ha ha...yep I posted on our feed.

We are trying to get our chair, one of the few academic chairs that's a female, to post #ilooklikeadepartmentchair

 

[Winged Scapula]

We are trying to get our chair, one of the few academic chairs that's a female, to post #ilooklikeadepartmentchair

She just did it about about an hour ago (she and I follow each other).

#ThisIsWhatASurgeryChairLooksLike

 

[thedrjojo]

She just did it about about an hour ago (she and I follow each other).

#ThisIsWhatASurgeryChairLooksLike

I saw... This is blowing up... @dpmd @MediCane2006 where you at?

 

[dpmd]

I saw... This is blowing up... @dpmd @MediCane2006 where you at?

I'm not on twitter. I'm one of those late adopters. I never had MySpace and i joined facebook not that much earlier than my parents. I also don't have instagram, snapchat, or pretty much any of those other things that people have. I do sdn and Facebook which occupies as much of my time as i could want. Why add more?

 

[Winged Scapula]

I saw... This is blowing up... @dpmd @MediCane2006 where you at?

We have Nikki Stamp, MBBS FRACS CT Surgeon to thank for this.

Also @Smurfette @gyngyn @TraumaLlamaMD

 

[TallScrubs]

Uro resident here. Urology has a huge presence in social media (I can call it SoMe, because I'm cool) and I find it hugely helpful. There are monthly journal clubs, articles that are posted every day, etc. I have an account but very rarely post. Either way I think it is a great and easy way to keep up on current literature.

http://www.europeanurology.com/arti...ations-on-the-appropriate-use-of-social-media

That is a great article from European Urology that discusses some general and well-thought out rules about using social media as a physician

 

[Winged Scapula]

I saw... This is blowing up... @dpmd @MediCane2006 where you at?

 

[Smurfette]

We have Nikki Stamp, MBBS FRACS CT Surgeon to thank for this.

Also @Smurfette @gyngyn @TraumaLlamaMD

I think it's awesome! However, I don't have much of a public social media presence due to harassment/privacy issues in the past (I don't have a facebook account, or snapchat, instagram, etc.).

 

[Winged Scapula]

We made the story! https://storify.com/JasmineMiller/ilooklikeasurgeon

 

[Winged Scapula]

Found this interesting: http://blog.doximity.com/post/10118...al&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

 

[Winged Scapula]

Relevant article: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/26276300/

Worst offenders are young surgeons who should be, IMHO, most aware of the drawbacks of a prominent presence on SM.

 

[thedrjojo]

still going strong...