Medical Students Share 50% of the Blame for Social Media Issues

This week the news broke, after a study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (abstract available publically here) that Medical Students are undermining any legitimate use of social media in health care by destroying their own professional image and alienating patients by releasing protected health information. Here’s an article that breaks down the findings: Med Students on Twitter, Facebook: No Patient Privacy? – TIME.

I have a few thoughts. First, are we looking at these student’s social media profiles BEFORE they are accepted? That would give us a picture of what we may be getting ourselves in to. Fact is, if a medical student really believes that it’s acceptable behavior to post pictures/video/accounts of him/herself getting drunk, then they probably aren’t the kind of material that will make good doctors. I’m not sure it would be acceptable for school environmental service workers (janitors) to post that kind of thing. We really need to look at what these people are telling the world about themselves not just the resume or CV they want US to see.

Second, the JAMA study concludes that Medical Schools may not have adequate policy in place. This is definitely the case. Most schools have not moved fast enough to put policy in place. In a professionalism council meeting that I attended, a physician brought up another good point… consequences. What are the consequences when the policy is broken? We have to define consequences and communicate them up front.

I think adequate policy is a legitimate concern, but I also think that policy is really inadequate to solve the issue. If we are not able to teach students how their use of social media impacts their ability to build and maintain a professional identity, then they won’t understand how their ingrained culture (engagement/social media) interacts with their new culture: medical professionalism. A list of rules to digital natives will work as well as telling our (or my parents) generation not to smoke in the boys room. People do it just to break the rules.

We have to teach, model, and expect consistent behavior that reinforces professionalism. We do that now, but if we don’t teach it in the context of the med students culture, we’re only covering half of the material. That may mean that our educators need to learn how to use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.

My math teacher couldn’t have expected me to take a math test using a calculator if she didn’t know how to teach me to use it for math. I would just bang away at the numbers like my 3-year-old. That’s similar to what we’re doing right now.

It is unrealistic to expect this generation not to use these tools. Social media and social networks are as much a part of their lives as their parents (sadly, maybe more). We have to see that shift and we have to respond to it by embracing the tools, learning them, and then teaching the responsibilities that come along with them as they relate to professionalism and private health information.

via Med Students on Twitter, Facebook: No Patient Privacy? – TIME.

The views expressed here are my own and not that of the Ohio State University Medical Center or the OSU College of Medicine. If you would like to comment, please understand that your comments will be moderated for appropriateness.

NBC 4 Talking Social Media

NBC 4 interviewed me yesterday to talk social media. Their story brings up a good question… Do you pay attention to advertising on social media? Is it ok for companies to contact you via social media? Is it ok for employees of companies to contact you via social media? NBC 4 @EllieNBC4 asked for the interview via twitter, which is quite a step forward, in my opinion; but when would it be too much?

more about "", posted with vodpod

Would You Use Social Media To Stay Healthy?

I want to be up front about what I do… I am building a social media program for the Ohio State University Medical Center.  I love my job. Over the last couple of days, I’ve heard rumblings that we may want to allow certain areas of the medical center to shut down access to social media.

To a certain extent, I’m not completely opposed to this.  I wouldn’t want a physician surfing YouTube when the physician should be providing care to a patient.  At the same time, is turning off access the best way to ensure our physicians, nurses, or other staff are attending to their responsibilities?  Well, it depends on who you ask.

I’m of the mindset that managers should be able to set boundaries for employees, teach them responsibilities that come along with access.  Of course, I am keenly aware of all the opportunities that social media afford us to connect with patients and customers.  What about the people who aren’t aware?  It’s not that they are wrong thinking we should shut off access… if they don’t see the value, why would they want the headache of having to manage its use in the workplace?  I empathize with them, I’ve managed people.

This all begs the question… Would You Use Social Media To Stay Healthy?  Would you connect with a physician or care team to talk about best practices?  Are you already talking to your friends about health issues?  Would you want a health care provider to chime in on that conversation?  Would you engage a health care provider?

As health care professionals, we have a responsibility to keep patient health information private.  How do you view this responsibility in regards to social media?

Please take 5 minutes and pick a question or two to answer because I need your help.  I need every piece of evidence I can find to make a case that turning off social media will adversely impact our ability to serve our customer in every corner of our business.

Stop Hammering With Social Media

Social media are tools. Tools help us get a job done.

It’s Father’s Day so I’m going to walk you through one of the most important lessons my Dad ever taught me.

Dave Squire can fix anything. To be honest, I think he still breaks stuff just so he can try to fix it. Call me a pessimist. Bottom line is he can fix anything. So as a kid, I naturally developed a desire to fix stuff, too. I wanted to be like Daddy.

But kids are always a little to anxious to help, right? I remember picking up a hammer and trying to “help” Dad screw in a screw. Similarly, I would use the wrong side of the screwdriver to pound in a nail.

There were two issues. I didn’t always know which tool would work best and I was usually just so happy to have a tool in my hand, I didn’t stop to think if it was the best tool for the job. After dad “reminded” me enough times, I learned that I could get a lot more done using the right tools and cause a lot less damage at the same time.

These days my Dad looks like a genius. When was the last time we stopped and asked ourselves if we were using the right tool for the job? I hear a lot of, “I want to set up a facebook page” or “i want to twitter.”

Have to give these people credit, at least they ask. But some don’t. Some pick up that shiny new hammer that many of us know as Twitter, and go pounding away with wild abandonment. If we’re lucky we screw up a bit until we realize how to use the tool, if we aren’t lucky, we can cause a pretty big mess.

So how on earth should we move forward? Please don’t wait for an “expert” to come along. You wouldn’t hire an expert to teach you to use a hammer, you just need a “dad”. You need a patient teacher who wants to see you succeed.

Then you need to stop and ask yourself what job you are tring to get done. What is your goal? From there, do a bit of research, read what people like Mack, Chris, Scott, Shannon, Brian, and Angela, just to name some of my favorites. These people are thought-leaders. They will all tell you they are not experts, then turn around and offer a viewpoint you hadn’t thought of; one that is absolutely brilliant. They will teach you how to use social media tools, they will teach you which tools to use at the right time. They do it because they love sharing knowledge, because they love growing conversation. They are kind of like Dad.

In the spirit of Father’s Day, let’s stop hammering our way through social media. Let’s stop and think, and then make our Father’s proud by using the right tool at the right time for the right reason.

We Went With the Creative Vado HD

Flip HD or Creative Vado HD? That is the question.

I am looking to buy a couple of video cameras that we need next week for a project.  The more I read, the more I’m starting to think that I need to consider theCreative Vado HD camera over the old stand-by, the Flip Ultra or Mino HD.  CNET had this to say.

photo courtesy: http://www.flipminoreview.com

On the plus side, the Vado has a rechargeable and removable battery… so I can buy a second one and make sure there’s always one charged.  The Mino has no such feature.  The Ultra has a rechargeable and removable battery AND you can put AA batteries in the camera if need-be.  The downfall to the Ultra is that it’s larger in size.

I’ve always been a Flip guy… use one myself, and have been known to share them with my friends.  I love the fact that you can put AA batteries in it if it goes dead while I’m shooting.

CNET says that the video quality of the Flip cameras is a bit better… but that’s not what this guy says.  PC World tends to go with the Vado as well… except in low light situations.

So what to do?  Well, there has to be someone in my trusted network who has experience with both of these cameras.  I’m willing to take your word for it… I need to make this purchase in the next 7 days.  THANKS for your help.

What Does “Personalized Health Care” Mean to You?

This morning, I had the pleasure of attending a presentation given by Clay Marsh, MD. and senior associate vice president for research in the Office of Health Sciences, vice dean for research in the College of Medicine and executive director of the OSU Center for Personalized Health Care.

Dr. Marsh was giving a presentation about personalized health care.  It’s a bit of an industry buzz word, and everyone wants to be a part of it, but the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services has a good summary here. To boil down the premise of PHC, it is delivering the right medicine to the right person at the right time. Science has moved quickly to understand our genetic makeup… it has decoded our genome and is in the process of understand how all of these pieces are linked, how they interact, and how they make us… well, us.

The science from there is to hopefully map what we look like if/when we are genetically healthy.

Genetically speaking what I look like is different than what this guy looks like (apart from the other and obvious differences), though, we may both be genetically healthy.  If we can understand what each person looks like genetically healthy, then maybe we can pinpoint the genes/proteins that signal we may be getting (or be predisposed to getting) sick.  If we are able to do those two things, the last and final piece of the science is to figure out how to get us back to our genetically healthy person.   It’s going to take the smartest people in the world to figure out.

This is the future of medicine.

However, Dr. Marsh doesn’t think it all revolves around science.  After all, we are dealing with human beings.  In order to understand what they are made of genetically, we need to understand more than just their blood type, we need to know what their environment (think air, stress, educational level) is like.  We need to know their diet.  Those are much more social factors.   Dr. Marsh knows that to learn these things about people health care practioners will need to stop doing business as usual.  We need to listen and talk to people as individuals.  We must open the channels of communication that our patients already feel comfortable using.  Only then can we understand the whole person in THEIR environment.  Only then will our patients share the information we need to be able to personalize health care.

So how do we do this?  Dr. Marsh thinks we need to start having more fun.  Of course, I instantly think “social media” because there isn’t a day that goes by when I’m not having fun with what I do.  How do we translate that to conversation/communication/connection with our patients?  How do we prove to our customers that we aren’t just in it for the money? How can we have fun with health care and not just tell you what you should do so you don’t die?

Dr. Marsh believes that President Obama’s plan to fix how we fund health care will be a big first step.  Instead of focusing on funding disease-based care (pay for it when they get sick), we believe that Obama’s plan will focus on wellness based maintenance (spend money to learn what keeps people healthy and then keep them healthy).  Personalized health care.

So what do you think?  Do you think it is possible to create enough disruptive innovation to turn health care and the way we deliver health care around so that it is truly personalized… scientifically AND socially?  What will it take?