The Social Oncology Project

How does social media and digital communication impact everyday life? ​The folks over at MDigitalLife and WCG not only ask this question, but they also gather data, analyze data, and draw conclusions from them. Earlier this year, they worked with Kaiser to present some of this data in the "American Voices: Aligned For Health" project. The slides AND audio are below along with a youtube video with me and social media superstars Kevin Pho & David Harlow. 

American Voices - Aligned for Health from W2O Group

In a report published today called "The Social Oncology Project," they analyzed multiple platforms of digital communication including 13.6 million tweets, 640,000 forum posts, and 285,000 blog posts over a one year period. Also check out this post by co-author Brian Reed. Here are some conclusions that were found:

• Among cancer types, breast cancer remains the most-discussed cancer type. This reflects heavy interest from the patient community
• Cancer awareness months are rallying points online, driving measurable increases in online dialogue in most cancer types
• Celebrities, more than research or clinical news, tend to create conversations online. Like awareness months, nearly every major cancer type has seen a spike in dialogue based on high-profile individual's experience with cancer.

​There is a section of the report talking about physicians talking about cancer online. I'm proud to say that Family Physicians, more than other specialties, are well represented in their MDigitalLife database.

The report found that digital communication, like twitter, was aimed mostly at the general public for awareness purposes, as opposed to digital networking with other medical professionals. And who is mainly driving this public awareness? Family Physicians. How about that? (Do you hear that #FMRevolution)​

There is a lot more data and analysis that you should check out, read, digest, and even consider writing your own blog post on. It's good stuff and I applaud MDigitalLife and WCG for their continuing work on this...​

​Addendum: Also check out our pal @Doctor_V and his take on this from the 33 Charts website...

Social Media Doesn't Have To Be Serious

​Maybe it's just me, but it seems to me that social media has been way too serious for a while now. Success in social media these days is defined by a social media business plan to make money or finding some way to achieving reproducible outcomes in social media that gets you labelled as a success. Oh well, I guess that'll never be me.

I know I'm going to sound like an "old guy in social media" (the "get off my lawn" attitude), but I remember when social media was a lot more fun than what's happening now. Just wanted to share a couple of videos from the lighter side of social media life.

Back when I started blogging, I did what is called video blogging. And, that was a lot of fun. I've seen on youtube, a lot of people doing this now. So, I'm trying it out again. Let me know what you think, do you want to see more of this? The other video is just funny with a couple of the people I know just doing a random video. It won't make you laugh, but it did me. So, enjoy...​

Interviewed on Just Talking Podcast

Thanks to Christopher Snider, who is the host of the Just Talking Podcast, for being a guest on Episode 189 just released today. Check out their website here, and download the entire audio podcast here. Also check out the brief video segment above from the show. At the bottom of this post, you'll see Chris' notes from the podcast.

Dr. Mike Sevilla is my guest this week. We spend the next hour discussing his motivations to pursuing a medical degree, his journey to family medicine, and he shares experiences, within reason, as a doctor within his community. We also discuss the role of social media within his own practice, the potential for social media among all medical professionals, and the pressure faced when presenting the concept of social media to his peers. Enjoy.

While, it's always ​good to be the one interviewed, I like to be the one asking the questions. That being said, Chris is going to be MY guest on Thursday, May 30, 2013 at 9pm Eastern Time for Family Medicine Rocks Podcast Episode 306. Hope you can join us then!

The Revenge of Long-Form Blogging

​As I was flipping channels this holiday weekend (while on call), I ran into Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. I know that I have already lost most of you (I don't blame you), but I cannot help but playing back in my mind "You Were The Chosen One." 

This long form blog post was inspired by another long form blog post by our friend Sean at the My Strong Medicine blog with the post entitled, "When IRL Imitates Social Media." It is an almost 3000 word masterpiece. In today's world, that would be 10 separate blog posts.​

Many people have said that long form blogging has gone the way of the dodo bird, which is extinct. Sean's post gives a great summary of Health Care long form blogging in the past few years. This post was inspired by that post. Remember when that happened "back in the day."​

I remember Mike was that anonymous doctor-dude who had an amazing intelligent sense of humor (equal parts dry, sarcastic and witty) while maintaining a level of professionalism expected from a physician. He posted great quality content that spanned the world from tech-geek Apple stuff all the way to health care, health care reform, and social responsibility.​

​When I read this, I was both proud and embarrassed at the same time. I remember the blogger I was then, but then something happened. Something similar to how Sean describes in his essay. My emphasis shifted from quality content to wanting more quality marketing with spreading links to every social media platform I could find. It's a full time job to try to keep up with all the old and new social platforms out there.

You're ​gonna get sick of me talking about this, but the May 23, 2013 meetup has recharged my long form blogging voice. No one reads these long posts anymore, but I'd like to try to change that.

It's kind of a long form blogging renaissance, even back to basic ideas like, "How Does One Gain An Audience In Blogging?" It would be fun for me to write stuff like that again. I hope that you stay along for the ride. I very much appreciate everyone who checks out my blog and my other social media projects. Stay tuned for more fun!

FamMedRocks Ep305: Dr. Rachel Franklin

​Thanks again to Dr. Rachel Franklin for being my guest on Family Medicine Rocks Podcast Episode 305. It was a fascinating interview that was recorded about 24 hours following the F5 tornado in the Oklahoma City tornado on May 20, 2013.

There were so many emotions going through my mind as I was watching the news and keeping the cable news channels on for those few days following the tornado. Dr. Franklin reflected very nicely on how Family Medicine takes a role in disaster situations like this.​

In the video above, I asked her how people from across the country and around the world can help her community right now. She also has some great closing thoughts on Family Medicine.​

You can listen to the entire audio podcast in the player above, or you can download Family Medicine Rocks Episode 305 right here. I also encourage you to follow me on twitter, like the facebook page, check out my youtube page, and see my linked-in page. Enjoy!​

Social Media Is Still About IRL

It is 1 o'clock in the morning as I write this, and I am so energized by the meet up tonight, I just had to write about it. Thanks to my long time social media pals Emily Bennett (@crzegrl15) and Sean Dent (@IAmUnafraid) for the great discussion tonight. Most of the conversation I'll leave at the bar, but there were three themes that I wanted to share here:

• What has happened to social media discussion? All three of us started around the same time blogging - meaning long form blogging, not the microblogging of  twitter and facebook. Back then, success was about quality writing and commenting, and not about the number of twitter followers and facebook likes. As I have discussed previously with Meredith Gould, social media discussions have moved from the public forum to private direct messages. Are public social media discussions dead? Maybe not, with things now like google hangouts, podcast interviews, and twitter chats.

• Social Media burnout happens. Back in the early and mid 2000s, to be a successful anonymous blogger, you had to be pretty transparent and honest in your story telling. Even though health care bloggers were not transparent with their real names, those bloggers shared sometimes pretty personal information & stories, which readers loved, but blog writers could not sustain, and many of those bloggers quit and blogs deleted. In today's social media world, marketing people say that you have to have a continuous stream of content.  But, I have found social media sanity by taking occasional and intermittent social media breaks. Recognize that social media burnout happens, and instead of quitting, know when to pull back a little bit and not sharing everything you're doing.
• Social Media Is Still About IRL (in real life)​. Back when I started blogging, I was able to make a real connection with the blog authors I was reading - mainly because the amount of sharing that was happening was fairly deep at that point. Today, it's very difficult for me to determine whether a blog post is a genuine story or a re-worked press release. People have noticed that when I'm at conferences or meetings, I do not tweet that much. This is because the way to make connections today is In Real Life (IRL) in the back halls of the conference room or in the hallways. For me, social media reinforces the in person conversations and connections I have with people - So it's still about In Real Life meetings for me.

I hope some of this makes sense. As I hope (and dream), I challenge you to leave a comment below to continue the conversation. But, I know what will happen. I will receive the limited comment of the tweet response, and a thumbs up like on facebook.. Maybe I am sound like Statler and Waldorf below from the muppets, an old guy wanting to go back to the past and how things were when social media was fresh and new. An old guy can dream, right? ​(It's 2am as I finish this post. Apologies if it sounds like a first draft, because it is lol)

Cleveland Meeting Of The Minds

You're guilty of this, I know. On social media, how many times a week do you type in, "Hey twitter friends, we should meet up sometime and hang out." And, then, nothing happens, maybe for years....

In Cleveland, there will be a twitter meet up which has been years in the making. Ive known @Crzegrl15, who recently started blogging again, pretty much when I started in the social media game, and for years, we've been joking, "Hey we should head out for that beer sometime." Well, it will happen Thursday night...​

Thanks to our pal @IAmUnafraid, the new graduate, for putting this meetup together. To check out the fun Thursday night, monitor our twitter feeds, including mine. It's going to be a good one...

Physician From Oklahoma City

Very few physician stories out of Oklahoma City this week following the F5 tornadoes there. I'd like to change that. I hope you can join me on Thursday, May 23, 2013, for Family Medicine Rocks Podcast Episode 305.

Dr. Rachel Franklin is an Associate Professor of Family Medicine at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine. She lives with her family in the Oklahoma City area and we chatted about what it has been like there for the past few days.​ In an earlier blog post this week, I talked about how Dr. Franklin was live tweeting information from the ground in OKC just a few hours after the tornado.

I didn't know this, but Dr Franklin was living in the area there for the April 19, 1995 bombing of a federal building, the May 3, 1999 F5 tornado, and this week's May 20, 2013 F5 tornado. ​I can't even imagine being in the area of one of these events, but all three? Wow.

In the video above, I asked Dr. Franklin what people can do Right Now to help the people in her community. You can listen to our full interview on Thursday, May 23, 2013 for Family Medicine Rocks Podcast Episode 305. Visit my podcast page for more information. Hope to see you for the show!

@DocForeman on #SMEM

​In watching the coverage of today's F5 tornado in the Oklahoma City area, I'm reminded by the Joplin, Missouri F5 tornado almost exactly two years ago on May 22, 2011.

In the video above our pal @DocForeman talks about how she used twitter following that Joplin tornado to try to get the word out and to coordinate emergency services (her section is 9 minutes and 25 seconds into the you tube video above). It is a moving story.​

Here are a couple of important quotes from this talking about using social media in the emergency/disaster setting (#SMEM on twitter, aka, Social Media Emergency Management):

• "You don't have to be a doctor to do this"
• "The public (i.e. the normal citizen) should have guidelines on how to be helpful on twitter following an event.... Tell me the three things that people should know from first responders"
  

You'll see more tweets below that @DocForeman was sending out tonight. If you haven't already, also check out my previous post on how a local physician on the ground in the Oklahoma City area is also using twitter. Social Media and Emergency Management: I know there will be more stories like this one in the days to come...

Live Tweeting Following OKC Tornado

​As I write this, it is 8:42pm Eastern Time, and I've been following coverage on this F4 Tornado in the Oklahoma City area. Kudos to our pal Dr. Rachel Franklin, who is a Family Physician in the Oklahoma City area. She is live tweeting as I write what is happening on the ground right now. I was able to copy the initial tweets from her efforts below. I encourage you to follow her on twitter @YourFamilyDoc for more updates. Thanks Rachel for your efforts! I challenge the Family Medicine Community, and especially those in #FMRevolution to help share their story with retweets and offer assistance when/if needed.