We see examples of personal branding every day on TV and social media. Sometimes these catch our attention, and sometimes they annoy us. That’s the thing about personal branding: it can be trustworthy or cringe-worthy. While personal branding may…
Category: Facebook
How the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the need for social media training in medical education
We are living in profoundly confusing times. Even as the number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise, the endless stream of mixed messages from government officials results in vast interpretations of what one can and cannot do during a pandemic. Althoug…
Ethical humanism: life after #medbikini and an approach to reimagining professionalism
So long as you are trying to fit in, you will never feel like you belong. When the travesty of a “research” publication titled, “Prevalence of Unprofessional Social Media Content Among Young Vascular Surgeons” seemingly metastasized overnight into what…
#Medbikini unmasks bias and forces the retraction of a journal article
#Medbikini started trending on twitter after a scientifically written article published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Vascular Surgery examined social network behavior. The article entitled, “Prevalence of unprofessional social media content a…
Are negative news cycles and social media injurious to our health?
I am an avid social media user, and a news junkie who watches news religiously, even when the same stories are being recycled every hour and on every major news outlet. I am a proud member of Generation X, the generation that did not grow up with the i…
We need more physicians in politics and (social) media
It’s simple: we need more physicians in media and politics. COVID-19 has proven to be a crash course in the practical application of microbiological, pathophysiological, clinical, statistical, and ethical principles. As a newly graduated MD preparing t…
Sharing mental health issues on social media
Susanna Harris was sitting in her lab class for her graduate program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill when she received an email that told her she had failed what she describes as “the most important exam in grad school,” the doctoral…
Doctors die. But the good ones leave a legacy.
In family medicine residency back in the early 2000s, we had a then-novel curriculum in narrative medicine. During inpatient rounds, we would sometimes get a few minutes to write down our thoughts about a patient’s experience. I remember how cath…
The risk physicians take when going on social media
I am at a conference that is encouraging physicians to engage in social media. This is something I was always a proponent of. I felt strongly that as physicians, we help set the tone of accurate medical information. Especially now in this age of disinf…
Why social media may be causing real emotional harm
“Mens sana, in corpore sano,” goes the old Latin saying. “A healthy mind in a healthy body.” It’s vital that way pay proper attention not only to our physical existence but to our minds and souls; to the intangible but essentia…
