Cast & Curious

Tag: healthcare social media

  • Here’s why healthcare professionals should be on social media

    Should healthcare professionals be on social media? 

    I’ve been asked this question countless times before and answered it in several forums. I said  YES healthcare professionals should be cautiously on social media in last year’s Philippine College of Physicians convention (Facebook for physicians; Use, Misuse, Abuse, Confused) . I said YES, HCPs should be on social media responsibly on #healthXPh‘s regular twitter chat (post and the chat transcript ) and recently, I answered a resounding YES, HCPs should be on social media, when an audience asked a similar question during the Healthcare Social Media Summit 2015 (#hcsmPH)  in Cebu.

    Before explaining my answer, let me digress a bit and explore the reason why healthcare professionals are NOT on social media.

    I asked a physician in the Philippines why he is not on social media (as a physician). This physician has a huge private practice and is a consultant in some well known healthcare institutions in a city. He answered me this:

    “I don’t want to be known as a physician on social media. I’m pretty scared of what get posted on my profile.  It might backfire on me. Anybody can throw malicious comments on me, or hack my account and wreak havoc on my profile!  My healthcare institution also forbid us to post anything related to work without clearing it from them first. Healthcare is my work so I need to ask them first every time I post on social media! That’s crazy! Besides, I was quite successful with my practice without social media, why would I need one now?”

    Such is a classic answer from a professional working in a highly regulated industry. Physicians and lawyers are examples of people working in a highly regulated industry. Highly regulated industries like law and healthcare have strict privacy and confidentially rules governing sharing of information .  The ease of sharing private and confidential information on social media is what healthcare professionals and healthcare institutions is apprehensive about. This distrust for social media and the people using it stem from some well known misconceptions about social media.

    Social media is person to person (P2P)

    That social media is just for marketing, branding and showing off is not true. Social media is a person to person (P2P) network. We tend to forget that both ends of social media conversations and networks are people.  We connect with people and build networks tru social media, just like what we do everyday, even at work.  It is interesting to note that in highly regulated industries like healthcare, we service people! How can healthcare miss the world of social media then if we are to service real people or connect with them?

    This is one very good point from Mark Schaefer (@markschaefer) in his book Tao of Twitter. Highly regulated industries allows the people in it to attend conventions, workshops, seminars etc. What do they do in those events?  Meet like minded people, learn from industry experts, expand networks, sometimes build brands, market etc. All of these we can do in social media too, often without leaving the comforts of our home or the workplace.

    So why are healthcare professionals missing the world of social media? Apprehensions? Misconceptions?

    Social media is public space, no matter how private your settings are. 

    “I have social media profiles but its personal and secret to only a few friends.” Added my friend above. He has a social media account after all, only that  it is a personal, “private” account.  A word of caution about privacy settings. In the evolving social media and digital world,  any post on internet particularly on social media, is a post on public space. What you privately post now, will come out on public searches tomorrow.

    So while my physician friend is on social media (albeit privately),  why is he still missing out a lot on the power of social media in healthcare? Remember, humans are basically social.  Social media as it is evolving right now is really a person to person conversation, human connections. Therefore, authenticity is an important value.

    That’s why I’m advocating HCPs should be on social media (if they’re not yet on it)  and act as they would do daily,  at work, when you connect with people or talk to them. That is with authenticity as a healthcare professional.  Social media should just be an extension of your offline pprofession and you should act like one, accordingly.

    Note: To guide healthcare professionals, how to act on social media,  #HealthXPh summed up a crowdsource social media manifesto for healthcare professionals and publish it here. Sign to show support! 

    Again, I say yes, healthcare professionals should be in social media. What we do at work-  “authentic helpfulness” ( to borrow @markschaefer term), talking to real people, of building networks and learning from our patients and colleagues, social media has an entire world of new tools to enhance this. That’s never been for show off in the first place!

    Resources:

    1.  “PH doctors spell out limits of social media use in the medical profession”. The Manila Times . May 7, 2014 
    2.  Lei, Katherine . “Adoption of Social Media by Healthcare Professionals: Optional or Necessary?  HealthXPh.net March 14, 2014
    3. #HealthXPh Tweetchat transcript @symplur From:Sat Mar 14 6:00:00 PDT 2015 To:Sat Mar 14 7:00:00 PDT 2015
    4. Schaefer, Mark . Tao of Twitter. Mc Graw Hill Education.  2014

  • The curious case of patient’s (or parts of them) photos on social media

    Years ago I amputated the right leg of my first ever explosives maimed patient. In my angst of the cruelty this man has suffered, I posted a photo of that amputated leg on social media.  I was careful not to put any identifying marks on the photo. I cannot even identify what extremity it was in that photo. I asked permission from the patient too although I doubt it if the person knew what social media is at that time. I was hoping that the brutality of the image would rally people against this type of cruelty. Desperate me maybe, but good intentions nonetheless.

    In less than 24 hours, I had more cursing people (at the cruelty) than I expected. I also got more than two inquiries asking who’s leg(?) it was in the photo. Great! I got the desired rallying effect I wanted.  And more. The inquiries made me pull out the photo less than 24 hours after posting.

    In today’s contracting, interconnected space, it is very difficult to hide an identity on the net.  It is even more difficult on social media. Posting photos on social media and hoping no one would identify it next to impossible Someone will eventually find out the identity of the picture, patient or whatever you posted on the net. Even corpses get identified.  From the story above, I realized its such a folly  to hide behind consents, disclaimers , non-identifying smokescreens and post on social media to further an agenda, no matter how good or noble you think it is.

    This story comes to mind again after seeing not a few unmarked, non identifiable, patient (or patient parts) on my social media feed. I am sad, well squirmish actually . But I’m not here to proselytize. I’m just saying that as a medical professional in areas where identities of your patient could spell out death to other people (sometimes yours), would you still post those pictures on social media? In an ever evolving interconnected and permanent internet, will consent and disclaimers  give us freedom to post pictures of patients on social media, no matter how unidentifiable that image is?

    Join us this Saturday January 17, 2015 9PM as we tackle yet, again patient confidentiality and privacy on social media.

    • T1.  Under what circumstances would you consider posting a photo of a patient on a social media acceptable? Explain.
    • T2. Under what circumstances would you allow a healthcare professional to post a picture of you on social media acceptable? Explain.
    • T3. How can we  hold healthcare professionals accountable for posting patient photos on social media?

  • How Social Media is shaping health care response to typhoon ravaged communities

    latestMTSAT

    During previous typhoons in the Philippines, particularly typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda), social media made an impact and changed the way we handle disaster and rehabilitation. People searched for unaccounted relatives and friends from all communication channels,  including social media. Typhoon updates and relief efforts were posted on social media sites. Comments and issues affecting post typhoon rehabilitation are played over social media sites. The country has a front line seat of what’s s happening before, during and after typhoon partly because of social media.  Healthcare, which played a major role in the aftermath, has had a big boost from social media.

    There were attempts at geo mapping medical personnel, healthcare institution and evacuation sites using social media tools-maps, tweets etc. Most of the healthcare and relief missions rallied and recruited volunteers from social media campaigns. The much needed medical supplies and support personnel somehow got bolstered by calls from social media sites. There was a frenzy of healthcare related activities and  medical mission on social media. Seemingly random and unorganised, its undeniable social media made a great impact on post typhoon missions and rehabilitation.

    Facing another super typhoon at our doorsteps, we enjoined our colleagues globally to help us harness social media as a tool for survival in a typhoon prone healthcare system of the Philippines.

    • T1: How can social media help prepare a healthcare system prior to a typhoon?
    • T2: Is there a role for social media healthcare during the onslaught of a typhoon?
    • T3: How can social media healthcare help rehabilitate a “damaged” community?

    We look forward tweet chatting you all on December 6, 2014 around 9:00Pm Manila time as we monitor Typhoon Ruby (Hagupit) during its passage in the Philippines.

  • Should the medical community recognize the social media work of healthcare professionals?

    A surgeon blogger  raised an interesting question about social media and academe in his blog Skeptical Scalpel.

    [quote style=”boxed”]Should academia recognize social media achievements?[/quote]

    The author compared his blog post‘s page views to the number of people who read his published scientific articles – peer-reviewed papers, case reports, review articles, book chapters, editorials, and letters to journal editors on a peer reviewed journal.  The 13, 400 pageviews his blog post generated “far exceeded the views his peer reviewed scientific articles” garnered!  The metrics he used maybe a bit crude but you can’t just disregard those numbers.

    This multi authored site Healthxph.net began eight months ago, published some 50 posts, had a total of 6K plus views as of today. HealthXPh health care related topics are broadcast and discussed over twitter via a healthcare tweetchat #healthxph. At one point, a healthxph tweetchat generated  some 9 million plus impressions spread  globally. Crude as it may seem, but that tweet chat impressions most probably far exceeded too the “page views” of all the published scientific articles of this site authors combined!

    We want the fastest way to share new medical information into the scientific community and jump start discussion. Or maybe refute it. The broader, general audience will most likely benefit if new healthcare information is readily available and accessible to them. That was exactly what we wanted for paper based journals a century ago. Peer reviewed online publications had the same goal with its launch twenty something years ago.Today, social media is poised to that too. We just need more healthcare professionals to run healthcare social media.

    Most of us acknowledge the value of social media to learning. It’s role beginning to take shape in the academe. Healthcare systems use social media to deliver vital medical information to the scientific community. The rapid spread of information on social media makes new medical information available to the general public, fast and easily accessible.

    We recognize social media’s value to healthcare  yet , we seem reluctant to accept the fact we need healthcare professionals to “run” healthcare social media.

    Join us his Saturday October 11, 2014 at 9PM Manila time as we discuss the following issues

    • T1. Should the medical community recognize social media works of healthcare professionals? Why or why not?
    • T2. How should the healthcare system quantify social media work by healthcare professionals?
    • T3. How should the medical community peer review social media work of healthcare professionals? Why or why not?

  • Who owns Healthcare data on Social Media?

    What constitute healthcare data? Who owns it? Who has complete control over healthcare data?

    Let me describe first the two general types of health data:(Wikipedia)

    A personal health record, or PHR, is a health record where health data and information related to the care of a patient is maintained by the patient.

    An electronic health record (EHR), or electronic medical record (EMR), is a systematic collection of electronic health information about an individual patient or population

    Patients have total control over their PHRs.  Although an EHR maybe co-created by both the HCP and patient, it generally resides and is maintained within an institution such as a clinic or hospital.

    In countries with paper based systems of recording healthcare data, the same type of healthcare data “ownership” may be inferred. The patients have total control of their personal health record while the healthcare institution, over hospital/clinic records.

    Some patients wanted access over his or her clinic/ hospital records (EHR or paper based). Others, want total control over it. The rising trend of sharing healthcare data in social media fueled fears of healthcare data privacy breaches.  In this age of smartphones and social media, who owns healthcare data?

    These are the burning issues on #HealthXPh tweetchat this Saturday September 13, 2014 at 9:00 PM Manila time. I highly encourage both HCPs and patients to share their thoughts and opinions!

    • T1. What healthcare data can patients share on social media?
    • T2. If HCP names are redacted, does that remove need to secure consent before posting?
    • T3 .What can the HCP/patient do if he/she’s identifiable in any social media platform posted?

    Follow #HealthXPh on twitter and join us on our regular Saturday tweetchat!