Medicine
Aware of the limited amount of reliable data about physicians online, many practices have decided to cut out the middleman and market their services to patients directly. Increasingly, practice websites contain more than basic information such as contact phone numbers and hours of operation. For example, Maryland's Potomac Physician Associates maintains separate web pages for each their three offices that contain physician biographies, a list of accepted health insurance plans, and FAQs such as guidance for caring for a child at home with H1N1 influenza.
Patient First, which operates multiple offices in Virginia and Maryland, displays each doctor’s schedule and offers links to news items about the practice and the websites of authoritative government and private health organizations. A primary care house call practice for the homebound elderly in Washington, DC posted an award-winning YouTube video describing the benefits of its services on patients’ lives.
Even for family physicians who don’t have the time or resources to incorporate many bells and whistles into a practice web page, it is a simple matter to refer patients to social media sources that can help them to stay healthy. The various institutes of the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality all maintain active Twitter and/or Facebook accounts to rapidly disseminate breaking news and other information relevant to patient care.
Preventive counseling to promote healthy and discourage unhealthy lifestyle behaviors lends itself especially well to “micro-blogging.” Smokers who are seeking support to quit the habit can exchange tips with thousands of fellow nicotine addicts at http://www.twitter.com/quitsmoking123; patients with alcohol problems can join a “virtual AA group” at http://www.twitter.com/alcoholicsanony; and anyone interested in improving their physical fitness can find lifestyle coaches and personal trainers at http://wefollow.com/twitter/exercise.
While it is difficult to forecast the directions in which online patient-physician interactions will evolve in the future, one lesson is already abundantly clear: establishing an interactive, informative online presence is far more likely to recruit and retain satisfied patients than leaving one’s reputation to the mercy of doctor rating websites.
- The Fda, Social Media, And Big Pharma - Part 1 Of 2
Last December, more than two years after first holding public hearings on the promotion of medical drugs and devices via social media, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration finally released draft guidance to pharmaceutical companies on the very narrow...
- Upcoming Seminar On Social Media In Family Medicine
For my clinician readers, I'd like to put a plug in for the upcoming annual Northeast meeting of the Family Medicine Education Consortium, taking place at the Coco Key Hotel and Water Resort in Danvers, MA from October 21-23. Please join me and family...
- Public Speaking - Events And Information (updated)
Since I began blogging at Common Sense Family Doctor in July 2009, its posts have been featured in widely read blogs such as KevinMD.com, Better Health, and Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview, as well as the websites of major national newspapers such...
- Docs Behaving Badly In Social Media
A recent research letter in JAMA surveyed more than 300 high-profile (500 followers or more) physicians on Twitter and reported results of a "content analysis" of more than 5000 of their individual tweets. As one might expect, about half of the tweets...
- Finding Good Primary Care: Beyond "best Doctors" Lists - Part 1 Of 2
Every year, I receive a survey in the mail from Washingtonian Magazine asking me to nominate local primary care and specialty physician colleagues for the honor of being named one of Washington, DC's "Top Doctors." I usually send in a few names, and...
Medicine
Finding good primary care: beyond "best doctors" lists - Part 2 of 2
Aware of the limited amount of reliable data about physicians online, many practices have decided to cut out the middleman and market their services to patients directly. Increasingly, practice websites contain more than basic information such as contact phone numbers and hours of operation. For example, Maryland's Potomac Physician Associates maintains separate web pages for each their three offices that contain physician biographies, a list of accepted health insurance plans, and FAQs such as guidance for caring for a child at home with H1N1 influenza.
Patient First, which operates multiple offices in Virginia and Maryland, displays each doctor’s schedule and offers links to news items about the practice and the websites of authoritative government and private health organizations. A primary care house call practice for the homebound elderly in Washington, DC posted an award-winning YouTube video describing the benefits of its services on patients’ lives.
Even for family physicians who don’t have the time or resources to incorporate many bells and whistles into a practice web page, it is a simple matter to refer patients to social media sources that can help them to stay healthy. The various institutes of the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality all maintain active Twitter and/or Facebook accounts to rapidly disseminate breaking news and other information relevant to patient care.
Preventive counseling to promote healthy and discourage unhealthy lifestyle behaviors lends itself especially well to “micro-blogging.” Smokers who are seeking support to quit the habit can exchange tips with thousands of fellow nicotine addicts at http://www.twitter.com/quitsmoking123; patients with alcohol problems can join a “virtual AA group” at http://www.twitter.com/alcoholicsanony; and anyone interested in improving their physical fitness can find lifestyle coaches and personal trainers at http://wefollow.com/twitter/exercise.
While it is difficult to forecast the directions in which online patient-physician interactions will evolve in the future, one lesson is already abundantly clear: establishing an interactive, informative online presence is far more likely to recruit and retain satisfied patients than leaving one’s reputation to the mercy of doctor rating websites.
- The Fda, Social Media, And Big Pharma - Part 1 Of 2
Last December, more than two years after first holding public hearings on the promotion of medical drugs and devices via social media, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration finally released draft guidance to pharmaceutical companies on the very narrow...
- Upcoming Seminar On Social Media In Family Medicine
For my clinician readers, I'd like to put a plug in for the upcoming annual Northeast meeting of the Family Medicine Education Consortium, taking place at the Coco Key Hotel and Water Resort in Danvers, MA from October 21-23. Please join me and family...
- Public Speaking - Events And Information (updated)
Since I began blogging at Common Sense Family Doctor in July 2009, its posts have been featured in widely read blogs such as KevinMD.com, Better Health, and Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview, as well as the websites of major national newspapers such...
- Docs Behaving Badly In Social Media
A recent research letter in JAMA surveyed more than 300 high-profile (500 followers or more) physicians on Twitter and reported results of a "content analysis" of more than 5000 of their individual tweets. As one might expect, about half of the tweets...
- Finding Good Primary Care: Beyond "best Doctors" Lists - Part 1 Of 2
Every year, I receive a survey in the mail from Washingtonian Magazine asking me to nominate local primary care and specialty physician colleagues for the honor of being named one of Washington, DC's "Top Doctors." I usually send in a few names, and...