Later this morning, I'll be speaking at my medical school, Northeast Ohio Medical University, about Digital Professionalism and Social Media. I'm honored to be asked to talk about the subject. In my final preparations last night, I asked my social media community what they thought and they gave some great advice here.
For those who are curious, my slideshare presentation is below with the essential slides. I always add a few more along with a couple of videos to sharpen the point, but you'll get the idea. Of course, there is not one right way to talk about professionalism to a bunch of first year medical and pharmacy students.
Tips for Digital Professionalism in Social Media
- Do NOT be Anonymous: For those who didn't know, I used to blog under the name Doctor Anonymous. In my social media infancy, I quickly learned the highs and lows of social media. If you want to make a difference in your professional life, give up the myth of being anonymous. I learned that people can learn who you are very quickly. So, be yourself...
- Do NOT talk, post, tweet, or share anything about patients on social media (without their permission): Obviously, this violates federal patient privacy laws. Sharing patient information with their permission is useful when you're a patient advocate. For example, when talking to legislators, it's effective to share the story of your patient who would be affected with a piece of legislation that is coming up for a vote - like the impending SGR Medicare Cuts that is schedule to take place at the end of the year again.
- Be an advocate on social media: Advocate for your patients because they need us. I'll also talk about the efforts with the Family Medicine community to be advocates for our specialty through #FMRevolution (Shout out to the Family Docs!)
- Use social media for Patient Education
- Use social media to tell your story: In the Family Medicine Community, I share how medical students and residents share their stories on the Future of Family Medicine Blog.
I also give a hat tip to KevinMD who shared a link from the 33Charts blog where Bryan Vartabedian and resident Joey Spinner did a video talking about Digital Professionalism. Also shout out to the Medical College of Wisconsin Family Medicine Student Association, Supernosh, David Lewis, Molly Talley, C Onyeije, Manasvi Kulshrestha, and many others who gave great suggestions for this talk.
Welcome those of you who are new to the website. I invite you to look around. In addition to this website, I have a podcast, you tube channel, facebook page for this blog, and a linked in page that you should check out. I hope you enjoy what you see, and, as always, I welcome your feedback. Cheers!