We couldn’t let 2020 pass without doing a Philippine Healthcare and Social Media Summit! A whirlwind of planning in under three weeks, we are grateful to the Central Visayas Consortium for Health Research & Development and the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center for partnering with #HealthXPH. Hats off to our #HealthXPH team mates Dr. Helen Madamba and Dr. Narciso Tapia from Cebu!
It was a bittersweet moment seeing my team mates on screen. I’ve always looked forward to #HCSMPH annually as that one time in the year when the #HealthXPH team is together in one place (last year, we were in Cebu!). Hence the theme From Click to Brick and Back Again. We wanted to move from online (click) to offline (brick) in our personal advocacies but the pandemic has forced us to go back online again.
Dr. Jim Lopez was our very able emcee!
I talked about establishing a professional social media presence. Sharing the slide deck below –
Some questions I received during the Q & A.
What are your thoughts on having two profiles – one for personal and one for professional use?
What I’ve done is keep my personal Facebook account only for family and friends. I don’t accept friend requests from acquaintances. I direct them instead to follow me on Twitter where I try to keep a more professional presence (though I rant there sometimes too!). Twitter is where I have my personal learning network.
What do you think about online presence and advertising one’s clinic practice?
We must be mindful of ethical practice and we can look for guidance from the joint PMA-PRC Code of Ethics (Oct 2019).
Prior to the pandemic, some patients have gone to my clinic because they saw me as Dok Bru on Facebook. So they can “see” my videos and posts online and then decide whether they want to go to my clinic. But what I’ve really liked is having a conversation at clinic that starts online, even when I haven’t met the patient yet. One patient for example had watched one of my videos on thyroid disease, listed down her questions and came to see me!
How do you deal with trolls? Don’t you end up in an echo chamber if you block the trolls?
I use the 1-2-3 strategy where 1, the troll says something inflammatory, 2 I say something back (hopefully in a calm tone), 3 the troll still keeps saying nasty stuff. Then that’s it, I mute or block. The question of ending up in an echo chamber is interesting. It’s one thing to not agree and discuss civilly online (and I follow many people on Twitter with differing viewpoints) and another thing entirely to talk to a troll. One cannot carry on a decent conversation with a troll. I think it is still possible not to end up in an echo chamber by muting or blocking trolls. My experience has been that there will still be a diverse set of people you can follow and engage with on Twitter, even if you block the trolls.
My talk was followed by a very lively panel discussion moderated by Dr. Helen Madamba. The panelists were Dr. Narciso Tapia, Dr. Remo Aguilar and Dr. Stephanie Miaco. They talked about how they started online and why they chose their Twitter handles. They also gave tips on maintaining an online presence be it on blogs or on Twitter.
Please join us tonight at #HealthXPH tweet chat 9 pm, Manila time where we can continue the conversation from this morning’s webinar. Thanks to all those who attended this morning and see you again next Saturday for webinar 2.