November 30, 2015

Are you using social media for professional purposes?  If so, you are in the vanguard of specialist physicians generally, and of anesthesiologists in particular.  Many doctors are still skeptical of the benefits, and leery of the potential to waste a lot of time.

Primary care physicians are among the more engaged with social media.  Media such as Twitter and Facebook are useful tools for connecting with patients who research their doctors; nearly 70 percent of all patients go to the internet either before or after a doctor’s visit, said cardiologist Kevin Campbell, MD, in an October 31, 2015 interview with Forbes magazine (Doctors Using Social Media To Reach The New Consumers Of Healthcare).  That ability to educate and influence patients—and potential patients—is relevant to chronic pain specialists, who are much more accustomed to marketing their practices than are anesthesiologists.  Dr. Campbell addressed the benefits of social media for anesthesiologists and their patients in the interview:

In general, anesthesiologists have very limited interaction with patients. Patients may see an anesthesiologist a few weeks before a procedure to be assessed for anesthesia risks, for an anesthesia plan and to be cleared from a cardiac standpoint for surgery. The next time patients see the anesthesiologist, they are being put to sleep. There’s no real follow-up because patients follow up with their regular doctor. For anesthesiologists, it’s important to recognize that you can help allay patients’ anxiety with more information. For example, produce a series of YouTube videos about what to expect on the day of surgery, the induction process and recovery from anesthesia. As a patient, if you’re partially informed, you have a better idea of the questions to ask, and ultimately, I think your anxiety level is much less. And we know that less anxious patients tend to do better in surgery.

Better-informed and less anxious patients may experience improved surgical outcomes.  Other very important benefits of participating in social media for anesthesiologists are to communicate with other physicians, to educate themselves and others and to share ideas.  As Kathryn A. Hughes, MD wrote in This surgeon embraces social media.  Here’s why she converted., an April 8, 2015 post on the KevinMD blog: 

The benefits are pretty compelling, and I broadly characterize them as scholarly content, news, networking, and opinion. But one final and surprising benefit has not been written about that much, and it has been a pleasant discovery. That discovery is the sense of professional community I have found via social media.

The professional community referenced by Dr. Hughes can be found at www.Doximity.com (the largest private network, with more than half of all U.S. physicians as members); www.Sermo.com (second largest social network, limited to verified licensed physicians) and www.QuantiaMD.com (collaboration platform on which members share experiences from clinical practice and engage directly with healthcare institutions to meet value-based care objectives). 

Anesthesiologists and especially pain physicians should also consider the general-audience platforms including www.LinkedIn.com (social networking site for all professionals to showcase their expertise, launch new relationships and participate in forums); www.Twitter.com (one of the most popular sites on the Internet; allows short posts that can be broadcast, grouped and searched via hashtags, e.g., at the recent ASA Annual Meeting, there were 17 tweets per hour identified by the hashtag #ANES2015), www.Facebook.com (probably the most popular social networking site and an excellent tool for posting information including videos and graphics for patients and for other physicians) and www.YouTube.com (channel for sharing videos).

A list of dos and don’ts for physicians’ use of social media follows.

Do:

• Start, by registering for accounts if you haven’t yet done so.  You already have a cyber-profile and reputation.  You want to manage it actively rather than letting others shape—or ignore—your profile.  To know what others may be writing about you, Google your name (as patients will do) regularly and set up automatic monitoring by entering your name or your practice name at www.google.com/alerts.  This will help you keep track of postings on physician-rating sites such as Yelp, HealthGrades and Vitals. 
• Decide on your social media goals, e.g., educate the public, interact with colleagues; on what you hope to accomplish, and what steps you need to take.
• Review the legal requirements and prohibitions relating to social media use with counsel. 
• Maintain professional boundaries and consider keeping professional and personal accounts separate.  One of the six principles listed in the AMA’s Ethics Opinion on Professionalism in the Use of Social Media advises:
  When using the Internet for social networking, physicians should use privacy settings to safeguard personal information and content to the extent possible, but should realize that privacy settings are not absolute and that once on the Internet, content is likely there permanently.  Thus, physicians should routinely monitor their own Internet presence to ensure that the personal and professional information on their own sites and, to the extent possible, content posted about them by others, is accurate and appropriate.
• If you have a blog or a website, add social media buttons to drive traffic to your social media pages.

Don’t:

• Disclose any patient information protected by the HIPAA privacy rules, including the identity of patients.  HIPAA should be the minimum standard, according to the Doctors Company’s report How Physicians Can Harness Social Media, which states that “You should be as professional on the web are you are in the room face-to-face with patients.”
• Give medical advice.  Do make it clear when there is no doctor-patient relationship; if a patient of yours asks questions about his condition or care, carefully refer him to educational literature, or to your office number.
• Participate in an argument on social media.  You can have a healthy debate, but when you come up against negative comments, it is better to disengage by thanking the individual for his or her post and moving on.
• Make derogatory statements about identified doctors, hospitals or anyone else, because that tarnishes your own brand. 
• Post anything you wouldn’t want your mother—or your patient—to see.

Numerous physicians have made great use of social media, notably bloggers Kevin Pho, MD (www.kevinmd.com), who has more than 2,000 authors contributing to his website, and anesthesiologist Karen S. Sibert, MD (www.apennedpoint.com), who is fearless and fair in writing about current controversies, the politics of medicine and women in medicine.

Another anesthesiologist  who has embraced social media is Paul H. Ting, MD.  In his article published in the March 2013 issue of the ASA Newsletter, Join the #Anesthesiology Conversation Online, Dr. Ting explained how his colleagues might take advantage of social media to stay current and educated, to connect with colleagues and to communicate with patients or politicians and other policy-makers.  More recently, in an October 5th article on KevinMD.com (Find your social media voice. Patients are listening.), Dr. Ting noted that 41 percent of adults surveyed said that social media information affects their choice of physician or hospital.  We will let Dr. Ting’s final words  serve for the final paragraph in this Announcement:

Patients are looking for accurate information and for someone to trust. As a physician engaged in social media, you are able to provide this information for a wider audience than just the patients you see in your practice each day. You have the opportunity to influence the behavior and attitudes of people who have chosen to trust you. You are able to provide important patient education amidst a sea of misinformation. You can advocate for patients and for the future of health care. You have a chance to speak to issues that you truly care about and potentially improve the health of many people.

Doesn’t that sound like the job of a physician? Isn’t that what you went into medicine to do? 

With best wishes,

Tony Mira
President and CEO