I woke up this morning to the familiar buzz of the phone alarm, and as always, on dismissing it went to check what emails awaited me at the start of the day. I saw a plethora of emails with Slideshare in the subject message. One of my presentations “Facebook for Doctors and Medical Practices” was featured today on Slideshare. :)
An educative presentation which is also available on Wirelysis, it focuses on explaining “the Why and the How” of using Facebook Pages by Medical Practioneers. I am happy to see that Slideshare’s editors have liked it and they have found the material beneficial for others. Lately there has been a surge in the number of Articles and Presentations being written and shared on topics related to “Using Social Media in Health Care”. Hence I am happy that my 3 month old midnight piece got featured.
Social media is for everyone. It’s about all people, networking on things they like, whether they are videos, conversations or information. Doctors are also a subset of this highly engaged group of people. Tons of them participate in social media; personally, professionally or both. And as always they have a lot to say
Using Social Media in Health Care has several advantages. It’s a cost effective way to use something you do for fun to help out your patients, by spreading information, providing support as well as in a providing a quick piece of advice. It’s also a great way to get feedback.
But take this next bit with a pinch of salt. If you do plan to bring in a professional aspect to your Social Media life, understand that you are now in the public domain. While you will gain publicity, you are now also exposed to being more abused. Don’t be oblivious to the fact that we have a Wall Feed where we will enjoy reading what you post. With great power, come great responsibilities. Be responsible and don’t do things which you wouldn’t do in public at a party.
A number of doctors had emailed me today asking me about Twitter and how they can leverage it for themselves. My reply: "Get on it, converse and engage: We'll talk more in a week, hopefully on Twitter". Well, besides the simple gyan on “the Why and How”, I have something cool coming up. I have been researching practically and building algorithms and processes related to Twitter as well as other aspects of Social Media, on how they can be leveraged effectively by the Health Care industry. The main onus being on how Social Media can be used to:
- Help provide accurate information faster
- Help patients interpret information more effectively
- How physicians and hospitals can leverage these algorithms to improve patient care, patient safety and patient comfort
- How physicians and hospitals can bring in more patients as a reward for being concerned about them
