Two ObGyns report: We tweet, too
There may be a lot of fluff on Twitter, but there’s a lot of substance, too—and you get to decide which category enters your “stream.” Using Twitter can be a helpful way to learn about interesting research and breaking news that might otherwise pass you by. And it can broaden your professional and personal network.
These and other benefits are what hooked Ruth Ann Crystal, MD, an ObGyn in solo private practice in Palo Alto, Calif. Crystal tweets under the handle @CatchThe-Baby and has roughly 560 followers.
“I have been able to share with other doctors what I think about certain medical subjects and to compare it to what they have found in their practice experience,” she says.
“I follow the tweets of physicians, residents, medical students, and nurses from the United States and even from England and India. I follow the links to some great medical blogs like SCOPE (@SUMedicine), KevinMD.com (@KevinMD), ACOG (@acognews), NPR (@NPRHealth), Reuters (@Reuters_Health), etc. I can pick and choose which tweets (headlines) are most interesting to me so I don’t need to check each blog every day.”
“In addition, I follow tweeple (people who tweet, or tweeps) in other subjects that are interesting to me, such as food bloggers, high tech people, mama bloggers, and even a few silly sites to make me smile.”
“For me, Twitter is like having my own personal news channel. I get updated by those whose stories matter to me most. I learn every day.”
Communication is the thing
Although he uses Twitter for a slightly different purpose, Nicholas Fogelson, MD, finds great value in it. He tweets under @academicobgyn and, at last count, has 570 followers.
“My primary use of Twitter is as a second methodology for communicating with fans of my blog and podcast” (http://www.academicobgyn.com), he says. “I do not tweet directly to my patients or use it in direct conjunction with my practice.”
“Twitter has allowed me to network with ObGyns and other physicians from around the country and the world. Through Twitter and my blog, I have many contacts and friends who would have been inaccessible without them. I have also engaged in dialogue with thousands of nonphysicians about various issues that concern patients and physicians.” He adds: “I have met many talented and exciting people who are in completely different fields that I would never have run into in my normal physician life!”
Tangible benefits
Networking with other medical professionals is one of the biggest benefits Crystal has gained by using Twitter.
“For example, several of us docs were discussing the importance of vitamin D. We talked about the latest research data but also about the correct ICD-9 code to use on lab slips,” she says.
Fogelson’s focus is on branding. “Twitter allows a physician to develop a personal brand that carries beyond his or her employer,” he says. “Many physicians change jobs from time to time, and as such, lose their branding. Twitter and blogging allows one to brand oneself separately from the brand of the practice. At the same time, this self-branding can improve the super-brand of the practice, and bring in patients who otherwise might not have known about the practice.”
Caveats
“I find Twitter to be a bit addictive,” warns Crystal. “Therefore, I limit how much time I spend in this virtual world.”
“It is also extremely important that doctors not tweet personal information about patients without their consent. Sometimes I tweet the first name of the baby I just delivered (e.g., ‘Welcome to the world, Baby Jacob!’), but I always get consent first from both parents. Patient confidentiality and patient consent are paramount.”
For physicians on Twitter, what not to say, and do
Do not reveal HIPAA-protected information. In fact, be careful not to be too specific about your day. Don’t say “nasty case of gonorrhea this afternoon”; instead, if gonorrhea is on your mind, offer some statistics and a link to the Web site of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. You never know if that patient from “this afternoon,” or her mother, is following you.
Do not post a statement or picture that you wouldn’t want to see on the front page of a newspaper. In one study of medical students and residents who created an identity on Facebook, 70% had posted photographs of themselves with alcohol; in many of those photos, what was shown implied drinking to excess.5 Imagine the impact of that picture, poster-sized, when displayed to a jury at a malpractice trial….
Be wary of using Doc-speak. Your tweets, private or otherwise, are fair game for misinterpretation. Tweeting “Labor and delivery was crazy” may mean simply that there was a steady stream of patients and you didn’t get to eat dinner, but an attorney may, based on that statement, be able to convince a jury that L&D was understaffed.