I love it when young people ask me to speak at conferences. Being around young people inspires me. Most of them see social media as their default way of communicating with the world. They are often surprised that they can use social media in “more serious” ways, as someone told me after my talk.
I was at the 2016 Asian Medical Students’ Conference of AMSA International last June 30. Yup, this is a late post.
Because of the heavy monsoon rains today, I was not able to go out. So I decided to tweet out the ten tweets in this presentation.
Social media & healthcare in 10 tweets https://t.co/OXBpPTxe6G
— Iris Thiele Isip Tan (@endocrine_witch) August 13, 2016
Participating in tweet chats like #HealthXPH enables a global conversation between health professionals, patients, industry & policy makers
— Iris Thiele Isip Tan (@endocrine_witch) August 13, 2016
By building a personal learning network on social media, health professionals can keep up to date with advances in medicine. #HealthXPH
— Iris Thiele Isip Tan (@endocrine_witch) August 13, 2016
Patients can find peer/social/emotional support on social media. It enables visual sharing of health information and stories. #HealthXPH
— Iris Thiele Isip Tan (@endocrine_witch) August 13, 2016
Social media can strengthen the healing relationship by providing feedback. Ex. #IWishMyDoc and #IWishMyPatient by @coffeemommy
— Iris Thiele Isip Tan (@endocrine_witch) August 13, 2016
There are ways to use social media in health professions education. However academic promotions do not recognize social media. #HealthXPH
— Iris Thiele Isip Tan (@endocrine_witch) August 13, 2016
Using social media data, researchers can forecast disease incidence, measure reactions to health campaigns and quantify sentiment #HealthXPH
— Iris Thiele Isip Tan (@endocrine_witch) August 13, 2016
Research using big data on social media and healthcare must be balanced with emerging ethical norms. Is informed consent needed? #HealthXPH
— Iris Thiele Isip Tan (@endocrine_witch) August 13, 2016
#HealthXPH released a manifesto for social media and medical professionalism in 2015. https://t.co/fcreRYbyOl A patients’ manifesto soon.
— Iris Thiele Isip Tan (@endocrine_witch) August 13, 2016
Social media empowers patients. @ePatientDave says joining social networks opens up new avenues of communication for patients. #HealthXPH
— Iris Thiele Isip Tan (@endocrine_witch) August 13, 2016
I’m active on social media bec there are many snake oil salesmen online & too few doctors. We need more health info in Filipino #HealthXPH
— Iris Thiele Isip Tan (@endocrine_witch) August 13, 2016
At the Q&A after my presentation, a student asked me if there was a systematic way to learn about medicine on Twitter. I answered that Twitter has always been organized chaos to me. I carefully curate the people whom I follow and just enjoy the serendipity of the Twitter feed. More often than not, because I have chosen who to follow carefully, I learn various nuggets of information every time I browse my Twitter feed.
I am also reminded of what Bertalan Mesko (@Berci) wrote on how our information-seeking behaviors have changed compared to the year 2000 –
Another student asked me about handling online trolls. I always refer to Dr. Kevin Pho’s advice, on going 1-2-3.
So don’t let the trolls stop you. Let’s continue using social media for good!