This document provides an overview of implementing social media in medical practices. It notes that most Americans now use the internet and social media. The benefits of social media for medical practices include retaining current patients, finding new patients, educating the public, and advertising special services. However, there are also pitfalls such as how to handle tricky questions from patients and potential wrongful disparagement. The document provides advice on getting started with social media as a practice or physician.
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Implementing social media in the medical practice jmj
1. Implementing Social Media in the
Medical Practice: What Physicians
Need to Know
Jennifer Joe, MD
MMS Annual Physician Practice Resource
Center Talk
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
3. As of January 2014, 87% of
American adults use the internet.
Pew Research Internet
Project, Sept 1, 2014
87% of American adults
use the internet, up from
14% in 1995
4. As of Jan 2014, 74% of online adults
use a social networking site .
Pew Research
Internet Project,
Sept 1, 2014
In September 2013,
42% use multiple
social networking
sites.
12. Definition of Social Media
Bradley Crotty, MD,
Approve, Deny, or Ignore:
Primary Care in the Age of
Social Media, Oct 2011
13. From Matthew Katz,
Getting Started In
Social Media shared
May 2014
14. How many of you use social
media?
What do you use?
Professionally or personally?
15. From Matthew Katz, Getting Started In Social Media shared May 2014
16. General Consensus from the Medical
Community is that there are benefits of
social media.
17. Mass Medical Society
On May 21, 2011, the MMS House of Delegates passed Physicians
and Social Media, which stated That the MMS adopt the policy
that carefully planned and professionally executed participation in
social media by physicians is appropriate, and can be an effective
method to connect with colleagues, advance professional
expertise, educate patients, and enhance the public profile and
reputation of our profession.
18. ACP and FSMB
On April 11, 2013, The FSMB and the ACP published Online Medical
Professionalism: Patient and Public Relationships: Policy Statement
from the American College of Physicians and the Federation of
State Medical Boards in the Annals of Internal Medicine which
stated that Use of online media can bring significant educational
benefits to patients and physicians, but may also pose ethical
challenges.
22. Local
Celebrity
Mass Medical
Society Committee
on
Communications
member, Dr.
Matthew Katz
Also External
advisor for Mayo
Clinic Center for
Social Media
25. Capacity to change social media from a potential liability for an
organization to one of its most profound assets.
26. Practices are using social media
On May 18, 2011, Physician Practice
published 7 Ways to Integrate Social Media
into Your Practice.
On July 2, 2014, Physician Practice reports
that 37% of physicians and practices use
social media to communicate information
about themselves and their practices
32% use rely on Facebook
11% rely on LinkedIn
10% rely on Twitter
27. Goals of today
Focus on social media to enhance a
medical practice
Benefits to consider when thinking
about social media
Pitfalls to be wary of when thinking
about social media
28. Potential Benefits for practices
Two big sources of information
Bryan Vartabedian, MD, blogger at
33charts.com with 20K followers on
Twitter
Russell Faust, MD, PhD with
windrivengroup, the first hospital
marketing company Ive seen really
do this
29. Potential benefits of using social
media
Free or inexpensive to use social media
Opportunity to retain current patients and find new ones
Opportunity to advertise special services
Opportunity to see what patients are interested in
Better connected with patients- compliance with diagnostic and
treatment regimen
Patients will be less needy outside of clinicwill require less time on
the phone with the doctor and the nurses
32. Retain Current Patients, Find new
Ones
They are looking to their physician for reliable information
Simple reliable information:
Bostonians like to start hiking around May when it finally gets warm. Give
Facebook or Twitter updates about Lyme Diseasewhat a rash looks
like, when to appear to the doctor, and how to get treated.
June-August is a big allergy season for Boston.
October is a big dry skin month. Give Facebook or Twitter updates
about eczema and yeast infection.
Everyone has sleep problems.
Patients will like, share, comment, and retweet to their friends and
followers
33. Retain Current Patients, Find New
Ones
Patients LOVE feeling a special connection with their physician
They love seeing their physician do philanthropic workpublicize
when your physicians donates their time to a Homeless Shelter, runs
the Boston Marathon for a certain cause, goes to a Disaster Relief
site
They love seeing their physicians as expertspublicize when your
physician is speaking around town, at a conference, in a webinar,
or publishes a paper
Patients will like, share, comment, and retweet to their friends and
followers
40. Patients Less Needy Outside of
Clinic
Hours of Operation
Special holiday hours
When certain physicians are on vacation
Policy on medication refills
Policy on insurance
Expected forms to complete
42. Remember, it is social!
You have to engage. Patients love the engagement.
You should find comments to like, retweet, respond to, or even just
favorite.
43. Pitfalls to be
wary of
www.russellfaust.com
Social Media Starter Guide
for Docs
Accessed 9/2/14
44. Tricky Questions
What to do when a patient reports an
adverse event?
What to do when a patient reports physician
misconduct?
What can a physician or practice legally do it
a patient has wrongly accused or
disparaged a physician over social media,
like Yelp or Healthgrades?
45. Patient reports Adverse Event
If the social media post about an adverse event is from a
patient in the physicians practice then I think the ethical
and appropriate thing to do might be to contact the
patient for more information, address the situation, and
then forward the details of the adverse event to FAERS
(FDA Adverse Event Reporting System) or the drug
manufacturer; the patient can be encouraged to do that,
as well.
If the social media post is not from a patient in a
physicians practice, but directed at the physician through
LinkedIn or by a Twitter follower for example, the right thing
to do might be to encourage the patient to contact
his/her doctor to address the issue and to report it.
46. Patient reports physician
misconduct
If the post is about physician misconduct, the patient
should be directed to contact the state medical board
where they live.
49. Wrongful Disparagement of a
Physician
As for wrongful disparagement of a physician (your
second question) in a social media post or online by a
patient, options may be limited. Some websites provide
an opportunity for the physician to give his/her point of
view or to respond to the disparagement.
50. Wrongful Disparagement of a
Physician
Mayo answer is Solution of Pollution is Dilution.
Rather thank trying to eliminate negative reviews,
create positive content so the first and second page
of Google is positive.
For physicians, never admit that you took care of the
patient, as this is a HIPAA violation.
51. Avoid the Streisand Effect
In 2003 Barbra Streisand learned about a
photograph of her beachfront Malibu
mansion that was posted on the Internet.
The photograph was from a series of
government-sanctioned aerial
photographs called the California Coastal
Records Project documenting the
California coastline to document coastal
erosion for scientific and research
purposes.
Streisand considered the photograph to
be a violation of her privacy and she sued
the photographer for ten million dollars in
damages and sought a court order to
censor the photograph from further
publication.
As a result of the lawsuit, the photograph
went viral, remained accessible, and
gained an exponentially greater amount
of exposure than it ever would have if Ms.
Streisand simply let it be.
53. Getting Started
Dont necessarily need a consultant like BWH hired 6
years ago.
As a practice, would recommend Facebook or Twitter.
As a physician, might suggest Twitter over Facebook
because Facebook tends to be very social.
An admin should post content regularly, possibly daily.
An admin should respond to content regularly, possibly
twice a day.