I am certain that many of you might be familiar with the intelligent, vibrant young lady named Brittany Maynard. Brittany’s story was so compelling to the world that it reached the most outstanding and historic numbers through digital media. Ms. …
Category: Twitter
A physician’s addiction to social media
For Apple iPhone users, the release of iOS 12 included a new feature called “Screen Time.” Although a number of productivity apps that offered a similar snapshot of phone usage were available before this update, I was never interested in quantifying my…
Should residency programs review their applicants’ social media history?
By now, I’m sure most of you probably have heard about the Cleveland Clinic first-year resident who was fired last September when it became known that in 2012 she had tweeted she would “purposely give all the yahood [Jews] the wrong meds …” The website…
Patients and physicians need to talk more and tweet less
Long ago, and far away, I encountered a patient that changed the way I practice. I was with a medical student while examining a middle-aged woman who presented with a dramatic eruption that was probably DRESS syndrome (DRESS syndrome was not yet descri…
Is social media a friend or foe of science?
An opinion piece published in JAMA suggests the latter: “Protecting the Value of Medical Science in the Age of Social Media and ‘Fake News’” The authors argue social media poses a threat to science in several ways: Unfettered pu…
How social media leads to a loss of creativity
I use social media. Specifically, I use Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. In the beginning, I did so for utilitarian purposes. As a columnist and aspiring writer of books, these were (and indeed are) useful marketing tools. I have, in the past, carri…
Why academic medicine needs to value physician contributions to online platforms
In academic medicine, promotion depends on the weight of our curricula vitae, measured primarily by the number of papers we publish in peer-reviewed journals. Physicians strive to jump through the hoops of publishing their work in “top” journals ranked by the “impact factor” (yearly average number of citations for a given journal). Yet the “impact […]
Surprising and unlikely rewards of social media engagement by physicians
A guest column by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, exclusive to KevinMD.com. It is not uncommon for my patients and their family members to ask for my credentials at the end of our preoperative interview. Despite reaching my forties, my Asian genes have allowed me to maintain a youthful appearance – often causing apprehension about my claim […]
