3. How Did We Get Here?
1983 2017
Women’s health story, when I entered
medical school:
Woman speaking about health, via
Twitter:
Binghamton Press and Sun-Bulletin,
April 14, 1983. p.4
Schattner, Elaine (ESchattner). “Beth Caldwell's impact
on metastatic breast cancer, @fredhutch...” Nov 6,
2017, 9:30 am. Tweet.
@ESchattner
4. Pre-www (1993): support groups, telephone hotlines
1994-5: first patient list-serves
1997: weblogs (blogs), for health: ~ 2003
2004: Facebook
2005: Reddit, YouTube
2006: Twitter
2010
Future?
A Brief History of Social Media For Health
@ESchattner
5. Social Media For Health Is Not So New
Schlesinger Library, Harvard Univ.
(Our Bodies Ourselves) 1971
Yale Cancer Center image: launch of the
NCI Cancer Information Service (1976)
@ESchattner
6. Newspaper Readership Is Declining
0
10,000,000
20,000,000
30,000,000
40,000,000
50,000,000
60,000,000
70,000,000
1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020
Total estimated circulation for U.S. daily newspapers
(print and digital)
Weekday Sunday
data source: Editor & Publisher (through 2014); 2015-2016 estimation based on Pew analysis of
Alliance for Audited Media data, PEW RESEARCH CENTER, 2017.
estimated (2015 – 16)
@ESchattner
8. • To advertise their practices and hospitals
• To promote their research
• To draw patients for care including clinical trials
• To connect with peers
• To educate and to learn
• To express themselves
• Curiosity, procrastination…
• Narcissism, psych issues & needs
Why Do Doctors Use Social Media?
#hcsm @ESchattner
(Adobe stock photo, licensed)
17. Doctors Use Social Media to Recruit
Patients for ClinicalTrials
@ESchattner
18. Dr. Nikhil Wagle Shares An Update on
the Metastatic Breast Cancer Project
@ESchattner
19. • Search for information about a health condition
• Learn about clinical trials and treatments not offered by local
physicians
• Want second (and third…) opinions
• Seek camaraderie and support among peer patients,
advocates and others
• Express viewpoints
• Curiosity, boredom, procrastination, etc.
• Narcissism, anger, joy, psych issues
& unknown needs
Why Do Patients Go Online?
(Adobe stock, licensed)
#hcsm@ESchattner
20. Why Do Patients & Caregivers Go
Online for Health Info?
@ESchattner
My answer (ES):
1. Doctors lack time
to answer Q’s
2. ↓ patient-doctor
relationship
3. ↑ information
access (web, etc.)
27. My Online Profile (“Presence”)
@ESchattner
One profile, mix of personal and private posts
Many followers, loose ties – journalism, health
Strictly professional (including SlideShare)
Mainly for fun, filing of posts by topic
30. •Treating people with respect goes far.
•Twitter’s not a place for dispensing medical advice.
•Be informal, but keep it professional!
•Consider the old rules for physician behavior in hospital
cafeterias and elevators:
Patient-Doctor Engagement on
Social Media GetsTricky
chatting in a hospital cafeteria
(Adobe stock, licensed image)
• Patients and caregivers on Twitter
are often watching, listening and
reading;
• A careless remark can be hurtful.
@ESchattner
31. A Good Example of Not Answering a
Clinical Question onTwitter
@ESchattner
32. Informational Chaos
Schattner, E. “Can Cancer Truths Be Told? Challenges for Medical Journalism” ASCO Educ Book 2017;37:3-11
“
@ESchattner
33. “Old” News is Imperfect,Too
Scott Pelley CBS Evening News May 12, 2016 (screenshot)
Schattner, E. Am Soc Clin Oncol Educ Book 2017;37:3-11 @ESchattner
38. 1. Newsrooms reduce staff for reporting and editing.
2. Many outlets lack fact-checkers.
3. To keep their jobs, reporters need file articles
quickly.
4. Most journalists lack time or knowledge to critically
evaluate reports about medicine, science,
technology and drug development.
5. Income depends on web traffic (clicks)
6. Editors may favor sensational stories to drive traffic.
Pressures on the Quality of
Medical Journalism
Adapted from: Schattner, E. “Can Cancer Truths Be Told? Challenges for Medical
Journalism” ASCO Educ Book 2017;37:3-11 @ESchattner
40. News Has the PowerTo Influence
Public Health
@ESchattner
Angelina Jolie’s op-ed on BRCA testing and
her decision for bilateral mastectomy
41. 1. Seek input from varied sources.
2. Transparency about COIs at all levels of reporting:
doctors & scientists, patients, reporters, publishers
3. Better education
4. Foundations to support in-depth medical coverage
5. Patient-driven “advocacy journalism” to distribute
critical information.
6. Open access to real-time and anonymized clinical data
7. Innovative systems of weighted commentary culled
from social media and elsewhere
Health News Fixes?
Adapted from: Schattner, E. “Can Cancer Truths Be Told? Challenges for Medical
Journalism” ASCO Educ Book 2017;37:3-11 @ESchattner
45. Date of download: 11/27/2017
Copyright 2017 American Medical Association.
All Rights Reserved.
From: Internet Searches for Suicide Following the Release of 13 Reasons Why
JAMA Intern Med. 2017;177(10):1527-1529. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2017.3333
Internet Searches Following the Release of 13 Reasons
Figure Legend:
@ESchattner
46. Security Issues:
• Stalkers exist and may be following you.
• Think before sharing details:
family, location, vacation, events
• Block pornographers, spammers, and individuals
displaying hateful language or violent images.
• Boringness can kill a social media feed; consider
divulging safe-yet-interesting aspects of your life.
• Know yourself. Establish limits about what you’re
comfortable sharing, and stick to those limits.
Yes, you are being watched.
Flickr, CC attribution:
Kristina Alexanderson
@ESchattner
47. • Doctors no longer control
conversations about health.
• Traditional journalism is fading.
• Social media is not going away.
• Information about health will emerge
from new sources, more from patients
• Public access to data and patients’ engagement
in decisions will grow.
• Artificial Intelligence
What Does the Future Hold?
@ESchattner
48. The Future of Medical Media
Will Be Amazing
Thank you!
Notes de l'éditeur
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A turning point for me – persuasion of merits of social media – 2010 – Jen Singer is an author and lymphoma survivor