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Posts from the ‘Medicine’ Category

May 23

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Social Media in Clinical Practice: The First Social Media Handbook for Doctors is Coming Soon!

In the last 10 months, I’ve been working day and night to finish a book that could fill a huge gap regarding the practical use of social media in medicine and healthcare. Social Media in Clinical Practice was meant to introduce medical professionals to the digital world through real-life examples, suggestions and step-by-step instructions.

I’ve been teaching medical students and physicians about these topics for many years and they always came up with a final question: is there a practical book that could help us learn the meaningful use of social media? Now yes, there is!

I hope medical professionals will find it useful and e-patients will share it with their doctors.

Social media has been clearly changing the way medicine is practiced and healthcare is delivered. Medical professionals must be able to meet the special needs of technology-aware patients and use digital technologies in their work and communications properly. Each physician should find the tools that will assist them in their workflow, and patients need to be educated how to use the internet. It is the responsibility of medical professionals to contribute to this process. The constantly evolving digital world must be used in the practice of medicine to improve the care of patients. However, the only way to do so effectively is via evidence-based, meaningful and strategic use. Social Media in Clinical Practice provides practical guidance in this mission and is thus essential reading for all medical personal looking into approaching this for the first time.

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Here is the table of contents:
  1. Social media is transforming medicine and healthcare
  2. Using medical search engines with a special focus on Google
  3. Being up-to-date in medicine
  4. Community sites Facebook, Google+ and medical social networks
  5. The world of e-patients
  6. Establishing a medical blog
  7. The role of Twitter and microblogging in medicine
  8. Collaboration online
  9. Wikipedia and Medical Wikis
  10.  Organizing medical events in virtual environments
  11. Medical smartphone and tablet applications
  12. Use of social media by hospitals and medical practices
  13. Medical video and podcast
  14. Creating presentations and slideshows
  15. E-mails and privacy concerns
  16. Social bookmarking
  17. Conclusions

May 20

Mayo Clinic’s Social Media Guidelines on Video

Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media (where I’m a member of the External Advisory Board) just published their social media guidelines in a video.

May 9

2 Comments

A conversation about digital literacy in medical education: My Interview on the Blog of Stanford

As I will do a Master Class at Medicine X about teaching social media in health sciences, the Scope blog of Stanford Medicine asked me to do an interview about my course in which I help medical students become better at digital literacy. An excerpt:

The most important thing here is a quote I’ve been using for years: “If you want to teach me, you first have to reach me.” Therefore I love going to the platforms that my students are already using. This semester it was Facebook, and I managed to teach them and test their knowledge on that platform. It was a real win-win situation.

All medical educators should design a new approach in transmitting the knowledge to students by analyzing what they do online. We do the same thing in the offline world by coming up with new textbooks and creating engaging presentations - why would we not do that online as well?

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May 8

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Figure 1: The Flickr of Healthcare Professionals

There are more and more ways for crowdsourcing clinical questions, and the newest addition to the family of web tools and services is Figure 1, a photo sharing site for healthcare professionals. Registered physicians can share images, learn from others and bookmark useful cases.

I’m not sure this is what the medical community requires right now, but I’m always curious about further developments.

According to the co-founder, Joshua Landy, MD:

“I developed Figure 1 because I wanted a safe way to share medical images with the medical community, while protecting patients’ privacy.”

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May 6

4 Comments

Let Patients Help: Make This a Must-Read Book in Medical Schools

When I wanted to include digital literacy in the medical curriculum, I worked really hard to get a chance for a pilot at a medical school with over 240 years of history. Now it has been running for 5 years. I teach medical students about the use of social media and how to deal with e-patients. Therefore when I came across and read the book, Let Patients Help, by E-Patient Dave, I knew this is what I was looking for.

I think we should make this book a must-read book in every medical school. To fulfill this huge mission, we need people working at medical schools who can work their way to the top and add it to the curriculum school by school.

If you work at a medical school or know someone who could help us, please let me know!

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May 3

2 Comments

When Technological Developments Are Faster Than Our Imagination

We are all working hard on implementing digital solutions in healthcare and everyday practices, create new solutions to access medical records online and with mobile technologies. Sometimes futurists come up with quite brave ideas about making future technologies available, but when technological advances are just faster than our imagination, I start to smile.

Accessing patient data at the right time with a secure system is a real challenge. Some doctors use tablets, patients use wearable technologies, therefore developing a solution that suits everyone’s needs is complicated.

But what if you can just project a touchscreen wherever you want to? It could truly revolutionize the way we access and create electronic medical information and data.

Instead of being tethered to your hardware, WorldKit is designed to make access to computing instant and mobile by making the world your touchscreen. Right now, the system involves a ceiling-mounted camera and projector that record hand movements and then project onto the surface of your choice. Some potential uses include TV remote controls, which can be accessed by rubbing the arm of a sofa, or calendars that can be swiped onto doors.

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May 2

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Re-Mission 2 Helps Children Fight Cancer With Video Game

Years ago, I had a chance to receive a few copies of Re-Mission and distribute it to local pediatric clinics. I can tell you children fighting cancer loved the game. Now I was glad to read the news about the launch of Re-Mission 2. The company behind it, HopeLab, managed to find big sponsors including the LiveStrong Foundation to improve the game and push it to the next level.

More than five years in the making, Re-Mission 2 consists of six free-to-play online minigames launching tomorrow with a host of support from charities, medical researchers, and major corporations.

The new titles are on the leading edge of “games for health,” a movement to take the engagement of gaming and turn it to the cause of improving health.

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Here is the official trailer:

 

 

Apr 25

1 Comment

My Master Class at Medicine X of Stanford: Teaching Social Media in the Health Sciences

It’s an honor to be invited to do a master class at the upcoming Medicine X conference taking place at Stanford University.  I will conduct a 90-minute Master Class on teaching social media in the health sciences. The final curriculum will be shaped by the learners themselves through their course applications, but his master class tentatively includes:

  • Strategies to create a curriculum for teaching students and medical professionals about disruptive technologies and social media.
  • Introducing online learning platforms as part of an official course curriculum.
  • Determining which online platform is most used by students and creating a parallel online curriculum.
  • Incorporating interactive content to leverage the power of social media in the classroom.

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See you there!

 

Apr 24

An E-Patient’s Essay in the Realm of Medical Professionals: BMJ Paper

E-Patient Dave deBronkart, the leader of the health 2.0 movement, published an essay under the title, How the e-patient community helped save my life. This is a must read for every medical professional just like his recently published book.

In April 2009 I found myself on the front page of the Boston Globe.1 A mere cancer patient, I’d written a blog post about my medical record. The Globe’s reaction—on page 1—was my first glimpse of a big question: how can a patient say anything about medicine that’s worthy of attention?

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Apr 22

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When a Patient is in Control of His Health: Posting ECG Results on Twitter

Hugo Campos is well known in the health 2.0/e-patient communities and now he made another step forward in changing healthcare. Even though I teach medical students not to give medical advice online, this little story should give us a glimpse about the near future of healthcare. He posted his ECG results (with AliveCor) on Twitter asking the opinion of cardiologists.

Earlier tonight, at around 7:25 pm, I noticed a fluttering sensation in my chest. My first thought was atrial fibrillation (AF). I’ve had quite a few runs of AF, so I’m familiar with its symptoms. I immediately grabbed my iPhone ECG recorder, licked the electrodes (I know, gross, but I wanted a sharp recording), lifted my shirt and placed the device against my chest hoping for a clean recording. Until now, I hadn’t been fast enough to catch an arrhythmia in action. But this time, I caught the tail end of the episode. I tweeted the experience.

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