Lecture to uOttawa first year medical students on professional use of social media

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Professional use of social media in
medical education
Presentation to uOttawa Undergraduate Medical Education
Program
Sept. 3, 2013
uOttawa
Ann Fuller @annfuller
Pat Rich @cmaer

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Lecture Objectives
 Discuss the potentials of social networking tools such as Facebook,
Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ in medical education.
 Discuss the safe and professional behaviours regarding social
networking usage.

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Who we are
Ann Fuller – Director, Public Relations - CHEO
Pat Rich – Managing Editor, Member Communications Canadian Medical
Association
Both experienced health care communicators with a keen interest and
involvement in the use of social media tools in medicine and health care
and believers in the value of these tools
WHO WE ARE NOT
Physicians
Academics

4. Medical students and social media
– A perspective
When I was a child, I spoke as a
child, I understood as a child, I
thought as a child; but when I
became a man, I put away childish
things
1 Corinthians 13

5. What is Social Media?
 Extension of every day interaction
 Conversations & exchange
 Communities of shared interest
 Tools for innovation
 Integrates technology

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“We have current roles
and guidelines but times
are changing quickly. By
2017 patients and their
health care providers
are going to be
communicating very
differently.”
Dr. Darren Beiko, Queens
University urologist, July,
2013

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Social media “policies” by
academic medical centers or
medical schools point out the
“don’t do this, don’t do that”, but
let’s also focus on what the
trainees CAN do. Let’s
consider how we can IMPROVE
our current health care system
and ultimately the care of
patients with innovative uses of
social media and social
networking …
Dr. Alex Djuricich, Association
Dean for CME, University of
Indiana School of Medicine

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A changing environment
 New health information technology tools
 Engaged patients
 Collaborative, team-based care

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A changing environment: Are you digitally literate
enough to be a physician?
“Today’s medical professionals must be masters of different skills that are
related to using digital devices or online solutions” and mastering those
skills “is now a crucial skill set that all medical professionals require.”
Dr. Bertalan Mesko
The democratization of media has made every physician an independent
publisher …physicians now have to learn to manage and maintain their
identity in the public space,”
Dr. Bryan Vartabedian,
From an article by Stephen Pelletier, in the AAMC Reporter,
Aug, 2014

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Opportunities for change
Patient
& family
support
Health Advocacy
Education
Clinical care Research

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Opportunities for change
Health
Education

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Opportunities for change
Patient
& family
support

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Opportunities for change
Clinical care

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Opportunities for change
Advocacy

16. Average time between
discovery of medical
innovation and widespread
adoption?

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I think there are too many people on the
Web offering advice to you on how to use
social media. Most of this advice is just
regurgitated advice from people you may
never have heard of before,
…You really don’t need “How To” tips
on blogging or Twitter. Oh, I’m
confident that you’ll be told otherwise
– but those folks, well-intentioned as
they may be, don’t understand that
you’re smarter than that.
Rather than learn bad habits from the
get-go, take advantage of your lack of
experience. It’s okay to make mistakes
that don’t cause harm and violate the
privacy and dignity of others.
From: Physician Social Media: Has
Advice About It Become a Crock? Yes
@philbaumann, Jan. 1, 2013

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The rules
 College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario Guidelines
 Canadian Federation of Medical Students (CFMS) Guide to Medical
Professionalism: Recommendations For Social Media
 Canadian Medical Association – Issues and Rules of Engagement

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The rules - translated
“Don’t be banal, self-promote excessively, share confidential material
(especially about patients), be a troll, break the law, commit a libel, or
overdo it.”
Dr. Richard Smith, BMJ, March 1, 2012

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Key elements of the rules
* Apply same principles of professionalism that apply in person
* Respect patient confidentiality
“Student professionalism … can be strained by the use of social media due
to its familiarity, ubiquity and impersonal nature.”
“Social media should be treated as a public forum akin to an op-ed in a
newspaper or a lecture. Anything that would be inappropriate to share in
these more traditional outlets should be considered inappropriate to share
online.”
CFMS Guide to Medical Professionalism:
Recommendations for Social Media

24.  Impact to patients
 Liability
 Privacy
 Ethics
 Boundaries
 Time theft
 Reputation
 Compensation
The challenges

25. Case study: The Political Resident
Brandon is a resident who, since starting medical
school, has kept a blog about his views on medicine,
medical education, and health care politics. Recently,
Brandon has blogged extensively about his extreme
political views regarding the upcoming election. His
residency director reads his blog and tells him that he
must delete his posts and can no longer write new
ones, as he is not only a hospital employee and a
representative of the residency program, but also a
professional who must represent himself accordingly
American College of Medical Schools Digital Literacy Toolkit

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Discussion
Is it reasonable for the residency program director to tell this resident that
this non-medical blog should be removed? The residency director tells this
resident to remove his blog. What would an appropriate response be?
 A. What a resident does on his own time is his business.
 B. He should have asked him to remove the offending posts and be
careful in the future.
 C. When you are a student and resident, you are ultimately under the
guidance of your dean and residency director.

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Case study: The Case of the Facebook Faceplant
The Case of the Facebook Faceplant
From: Academic Life in Emergency Medicine – MEdIC
Series

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Case study III
Susan is helping treat a patient who she is certain she
has read about. She seems to remember that he has
been associated with violent and criminal activities. The
patient’s medical record makes no mention of any
psychological or psychiatric issues.
Susan decides to look the patient up on Facebook to see
what – if anything has been written about him.

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Case study III – Looking up patients on Facebook
 Topic of widespread debate in the social media
community earlier this year and subject of more than
one Tweet chat
 Would it be a different situation if Susan just thought
the patient was vaguely recognizable and checked on
Facebook to see if he was anybody famous?
 “Do it if your conscience says there’s a good clinical
reason for doing so.”
– White Coat Black Art host Dr. Brian Goldman

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Why consider using social media
 To stay informed
 As a learning tool in medical education
 Communicate (engage) with peers and patients
 Disseminate information
 Advocate for/against something
 To help get a job
 To deliver clinical care
 Because if you decide not to use social media, your decision should be
based on sound knowledge about what you are choosing not to use

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Social media at
medical school
Students who
don’t use social
media in school
“are missing out.”
Dr. Mike Leveridge,
Queen’s University
urologist

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Using social media in medical school: Suggestions
 Facebook presence for classmates etc
 LinkedIn account to:
 Build network for future career
 Follow discussion forums on medical education
 Twitter account to:
 Develop your list of people, journals and other accounts to follow
 Watch (and engage) medical Twitter community (e.g. #hcsmca,
#hcsm)
 Follow and engage your professors

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Take home messages
 Social media are an established part of society and
social interaction
 Social media use by physicians in Canada is low
 Consider using social media:
 As tools to support your learning activities
 As tools to support research
 To enhance what you are doing as practitioner

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▸Questions?