Being Up-To-Date in the Medical Profession: Prezi and Test April 12, 2012
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Health, Health 2.0, Medical education, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, The Social MEDia Course, Web 2.0, Webicina.add a comment
Do you know how to keep yourself up-to-date online? Do you know how to get search results about your name, organization or practice without spending time and efforts? Do you know what RSS is?
The Being Up-to-date in medicine prezi will answer all your questions and you can test your knowledge by taking the post test and earning your badge at the free Social MEDia Course!
Social Media in Primary Care: Interview March 29, 2012
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Health, Health 2.0, Healthcare, Interview, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Web 2.0.5 comments
In my new series I ask medical professionals and e-patients about how they use social media presented through practical examples and suggestions (so far: a rheumatologist, a diabetes blogger, and a pediatrician answered my questions, each of them is proficient in using social media). Now please welcome Dr. Mike Sevilla, the social media guru of primary care. He launched the Dr. Anonymous Show years ago, an online radio show in which he invited me to be the guest and I woke up at 3 AM and talked with him about social media for an hour. He is the real voice of the primary care community and he kindly told me how he uses social media day by day.
- What social media channels do you use in your work and for what purposes? How do you keep yourself up-to-date and connected?
For me, I use twitter and facebook the most (meaning daily) in my work. I use twitter to find the hot topics of the day. I also use it to share links. I use facebook to keep connected with friends and family (not for clinical work). I don’t blog or podcast much as I’d like, but I utilize blogs and podcasts to state opinions and to connect with my social media audience.
- What do your patients think about social media? Do they use it?
My patients use social media a lot. I get asked every day about information that they learn on the internet. My patients share with me facebook pages to like and sometimes I get links from twitter. As I have said in blog posts and presentations in the past, I really believe that our patients will drive physicians to utilize social media.
- What social media sites do you think point towards the future of healthcare?
Even though Google Health is now offline, I really think that it was a service before its time. People will have a more of a interest in the near future of having their personal health record available to them and the next generation of Google Health type sites are coming soon.
Another site that is very interesting to me is Wolfram Alpha. This site will grow in presence and popularity because of the iPhone Siri service. Since Wolfram Alpha searches are more driven by data (as opposed to questionably bias algorthms of Google & Bing), I predict that people will use this search engine more in healthcare related searches.
- What do you think about the curated Family Medicine and Social Media selection on Webicina.com? For what reasons did you use it?
Webicina has done a great job of gathering the major Family Medicine social media resources out there including blogs, podcasts, news, and others. If someone wanted to quickly learn about what is out there for Family Medicine, I direct people to check out webicina’s curated selections first.
- Do you use the dynamic version (PeRSSonalized Family Medicine)?
I admit that I should really use this resource more to review the feeds that are most important to me. It’s great that it is multi-lingual and it has the most popular RSS Family Medicine journals here. Great job with this!
The Social MEDia Course: Revolution in Medical Education NOW! March 22, 2012
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in e-patient, Education, Health, Health 2.0, Healthcare, Innovation, Medical education, Medical Search, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Prezi, twitter, Video, Web 2.0, Webicina.2 comments
Social media is changing how medicine is practiced and healthcare is delivered. Patients, doctors, communication or even time management, everything is changing, except one thing: medical education. We need a revolution!
When a UK physician wanted to visit Hungary every week just to attend my university course focusing on social media and medicine, I decided it’s time to make this course global.
Today, The Social MEDia Course goes live with 16 flash Prezis, exciting tests, badges and achievements. Enjoy and have fun while learning! Medical students, physicians and even patients, everyone is welcome to take the course which is, of course, for free.
Here is a video about the course (and also a Prezi).
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Social Media From a Pediatrician Point of View: Interview March 19, 2012
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Health, Health 2.0, Interview, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Video, Web 2.0, Webicina.4 comments
In the first part of my series (I ask medical professionals and e-patients about how they use social media presented through practical examples and suggestions), a rheumatologist and a diabetes blogger told us how they use social media day by day. Now here is Wendy Sue Swanson (Twitter) or Seattle Mama Doc, the social media superstar of pediatrics. She shared the way she uses social media in her practice and also what her patients think about her online activities.
- What social media channels do you use in your work and for what purposes?
I use my blog as the main space and place to educate. I make videos that live there, as well as on YouTube on a weekly basis, and I author 2-3 posts a week. I also use twitter on a daily basis –I share and opine about recent studies, traction for new work in the media, parenting advice. BUT MORE, I listen. I use twitter to research how moms/dads online are responding to controversial parenting topics and new findings, but also how they share about their own lives. I listen and learn from my incredible community there: world health experts, pediatricians, activated patients, bloggers, etc. It’s a place for me to grow, network and share my thinking. I am also on LinkedIn but I primarily use it as an inbox and a way to connect and network. I also spend time (less and less now) on Google Plus, Quora, and Doximity (an online community for physicians).
- What do your patients think about social media? Do they use it?
Well, my patients and I don’t talk a lot about social media, we talk mostly about health (care) for their children! But I often mention my blog to them on pertinent topics and they will stop me and say, “you don’t have to explain that, I already read about it on the blog!” Many times families will commiserate with me after they’ve read about my son’s being ill (on the blog) or reflect how they felt similar to posts where I describe the challenges of being a working parent. My blog allows a window not only into parenting advice, but into who I am as a person—something that is very relevant for forming a partnership between doc and patient. I’ve never surveyed my patients and their parents but we know that 98% of all adolescents are on Facebook—so are my patients using soc media—OF COURSE!
- What social media sites do you think point towards the future of healthcare?
Likely the ones we don’t know about yet. As you know, there is an active and growing pulse in the start-up world working to form platforms and features to support current EMR systems and current sites for networking. Many physicians and health systems that are using social sites are using them for marketing more than education and direct communication with patients. When we figure out how allow for online communication to be a payable experience in health care is when we’ll see these communities really take off. I contend that virtual care is in the future job description of every pediatrician. Much of what we do in the office can happen more efficiently online. My hunch is there will be an add-on or app that utilizes Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest or whatever is next (!) a family likes to live that allows them to share health information with their doctor, where they can learn from their physicians, and where they can coordinate their records and health decisions with family members. A community, just an online one is what’s needed.
- What do you think about the curated Pediatrics and Social Media selection on Webicina.com? For what reasons did you use it?
I think it’s a good start to organizing resources and helping people navigate the internet and a nice resource for parents when they are looking to find a voice that resonates with them. The challenge with any collection and list like this is that individual’s commitments to publishing change (some blogs are just a landing page of traditional media and some aren’t actively added to or searchable) AND there are new additions (thank goodness) every week as more and clinicians enter this space. Hard to keep a list like this fresh, but also a start is the best place to begin.
- Have you tried the dynamics selection?
LOVE IT! Didn’t know about it until today. Great space see an overview as a doc.
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TEDxMaastricht: The Future of Health March 10, 2012
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Health, Health 2.0, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Ted Talks, Video, Web 2.0.2 comments
Lucien Engelen, director of the Radboud REshape & Innovation Centre at Radboud University Nijmegen medical centre in the Netherlands and also organizer of TEDxMaastricht “The Future of Health” on 2 April has recently given an interview about his TED talk to the Guardian. An excerpt:
What do we do with this incredible amount of health data?
That is a real challenge. We need new ways of finding our way through it. On the intersection between big data and narration is where we can really change healthcare for the better.
You want people to take control of their own health?
Only if they want to. If they want to but they can’t, we will teach them. If they want to but they can’t because there is no system or technology, we will build it for them. But if they don’t want to we will deliver healthcare in the regular way. Some people think it is one way or the other, but it’s not.
Check out the program of TEDxMaastricht: The Future of Health. And if you are not able to attend it personally, you can still watch the presentations via simulcast locations. And his TED talk:
Social Media Disaster Response Center Launched by Red Cross March 9, 2012
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Health, Health 2.0, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Web 2.0.2 comments
There is no question now whatever happens in the world, one of the first (if not the first) channels where the information appears is social media. The same thing happens to medical emergencies. And global medical organizations such as Red Cross has to be ready to act fast AND to communicate with people easily. The new Social Media Disaster Response Center Red Cross just launched in collaboration with Dell is a clear example for that.
The Red Cross and Dell have jointly launched a Digital Operations Center, the first social media-monitoring platform dedicated to humanitarian relief. The Digital Operations Center will equip the Red Cross to better share safety and preparedness tips during natural disasters.
Along with the center’s launch, the Red Cross will now accept digital volunteers to reply to social media calls for aid. Volunteers can reply to questions such as “Where’s the nearest emergency shelter?” or “Where is the nearest food supply?” during emergency periods. The organization is also in the process of launching a certification program for online volunteers.
Map of European Healthcare Professionals on Twitter March 5, 2012
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Health, Health 2.0, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, twitter, Web 2.0.1 comment so far
Yesterday, I wrote about a self-edited directory of European healthcare professionals on Twitter which was launched by Andrew Spong after I tweeted that I’m the only European doctor in the top 25 of the global list of doctors on Twitter. Now here is the interactive map version. This project is getting more and more attention and hopefully this movement will result in a very useful list of European medical professionals being active on Twitter.
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Social Media Engagement: What is the motivation? March 1, 2012
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Health, Health 2.0, Healthcare, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Web 2.0.2 comments
Yesterday, I was invited to talk about social media and healthcare/medicine for a very diverse group of students (economics, marketing and political science) and they had great questions from different perspectives. Once they asked me how we could motivate doctors to be a bit more web-savvy.
First I told them I think doctors don’t have to become web-savvy, but they should know about internet-related issues as their patients will have more and more questions about this area.
Second, patients have a huge motivation behind using social media and internet itself. This motivation is the condition they have to cope with which means they need information and in many cases the easiest solution is to turn to the internet.
For doctors, the motivation is not that clear for everyone, but I’m pretty certain the growing number of e-patients will be the real motivation for them. When a GP has 40 patients a day and 30 of them have internet related questions, well, that will probably persuade them to at least know about this issues.
Then I just came across this article: Docs slow to engage patients with IT
A new study by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions indicates physicians are not using IT broadly to engage patients. No more than 20 percent of doctors are providing online scheduling or test results for their patients and just 6 percent are using social media to communicate with them, according to Deloitte.
And also: Giving technology tips to older doctors should be done delicately
Andrew Ritcheson, PhD, is a senior program manager and consulting psychologist for Dynamic Research Corp., a business consulting group that has provided support to both the Defense Dept. and the Dept of Veterans Affairs in implementing a range of health care initiatives. He said that although many physicians are open to receiving help from younger colleagues, there is a fine line between helping and insulting. There are ways to keep everyone’s focus on a goal of improved care, rather than worrying about if someone crossed that line, Ritcheson said. Everyone must know they can reach that goal as a team, with each member contributing his or her own strengths and acknowledging that each has something to learn from the other.
From Pinterest and Septris to the Patient of the Future February 29, 2012
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Health, Health 2.0, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Mobile, Web 2.0, What's on the web?.add a comment
Too many people are not going to see their doctors on a regular basis and they need to be educated on why that is a bad idea. No printed or interactive forum can replace a trained medical professional.
Like many “self-quanters,” Smarr wears a Fitbit to count his every step, a Zeo to track his sleep patterns, and a Polar WearLink that lets him regulate his maximum heart rate during exercise.
DS: What are you hoping to come away with from the conference?
TL: I do hope I can meet Berci in person and ask him how he has so much energy to tweet and write on his blog every single day
- PulsePoint: PulsePoint empowers individuals, within covered communities, the ability to provide life-saving assistance to victims of Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA). Application users who have indicated they are trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) are notified if someone nearby is having a cardiac emergency and may require CPR.
Ryan Jones, MD, an internist in the Dallas-Fort Worth area who is less than two years out of residency, realizes it could come off as showy if she stands over the shoulder of older colleagues, offering suggestions on how to become more tech savvy.
“I do definitely try to be very sweet about it,” she said. Her methods have proven successful as colleagues generally have welcomed the advice — just as she welcomes their unsolicited advice on ways to be a better internist.
The E-Patient becomes a patient February 13, 2012
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in e-patient, Health, Health 2.0, Healthcare, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Video, Web 2.0.2 comments
E-patient Dave deBronkart has been the most important and amazing voice of the e-patient movement for years now after surviving a kidney cancer years ago. When I asked him to comment on how medical students should become doctors who are aware of the e-patient movement, he sent me and my students this message.
He announced a few days ago that he has skin cancer again.
An odd consequence of speaking at medical conferences is that sometimes my face is displayed, real big, on monitors at the front of a room. That happened in November at the Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q) annual meeting in Washington.
At the end, Lisa Letourneau MD, MPH of Maine Quality Countsraced up, pointed to my jaw, and said “You should have that checked. I think it’s a basal cell.” (That’s the least serious type of skin cancer – see Wikipedia: “Basal-cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common type of skin cancer. It rarely metastasizes or kills.”) A few days later I took the picture at left, and started watching.
And now here is the newest piece of the story, Dave approaches the issue from a different angle:
I’ve decided to explore my options by doing what companies do when they’re shopping for a solution: they write a Request for Proposals, and let vendors reply. But in this case what I published isn’t cast in stone – I invite discussion and suggestions. And, significantly, I start with the context: partnership; participatory medicine -
I cannot wait to see how the industry and the healthcare system respond to such innovative approach.
