Category: Twitter

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 […]