Social Media in Graduate Medical Education Kyle Bradford Jones, Sonja Van Hala, MD, MPH (no Twitter feed…yet) Dept of Family and Preventive

“Social media in medicine is not about socializing with others. It is as professional a forum as presenting at a national meeting. The difference is that with social media, the audience can consist of millions of people. Public and patient reliance on social media for important information is a fact that physicians can no longer ignore.” --Dr. Anas Younes, chief of the Lymphoma Service at Memorial Sloan- Kettering Cancer Center, >11K Twitter followers Twitter in a Health Care Context

 Advertise what you are doing or can offer  Engage with specific people/organizations you’re interested in  Particularly with national meetings  Share interesting content you find online  Collaborate and Network with others from around the country  Educate patients, fellow providers, students, the public  Learn about anything you want The Why

 Search engine optimization  Presence on social media platforms raises the program near the top of the search when someone searches the topic online  Training residents in social media use  Few medical schools or residencies do this The Why

 S0Me can consume your life if you let it  But there are benefits to a few minutes of use per day Social Media Myth #1: We don’t have time for this

 There are pitfalls and you need to be careful  EVERYONE can see what you post  But lack of engagement can worsen health  Waning immunization rates in part from social media  Katie Couric and HPV  Residents need an example/training for appropriate SoMe use Social Media Myth #2: It’s too dangerous

 This is a significant part of our culture and is not going away  Keep a professional barrier  Don’t friend patients  You are ALWAYS a physician, even on social media  You still are associated with the University even on a personal account  Use it as a forum for more general answers and avoid individualized medical advice Social Media Myth #2: It’s too dangerous

 Started Facebook page and Twitter feed in early Sep 2013  73 page likes  Average of 27 engaged users per week, and  A total reach of 200 people per week U of U Family Medicine Residency

 Has allowed for engagement with other programs, faculty, residents, students, and media  Followed by multiple residency directors, many national thought leaders in Family Medicine, national health care journalists, and many in Univ Healthcare leadership Residency Twitter Feed

 Family Medicine Vital Signs (fammedvitalsigns.wordpress.com)  Started July 1  Weekly posts about Family Medicine and current issues by faculty, residents, and students  Viewed 793 times by 610 unique visitors from 10 countries (?!?)  Unofficial, so no branding allowed Residency Blog

 1) Join Twitter personally (if you haven’t already)  2)  3) Start easy  Just retweet other posts that you like  Find some hashtags that you enjoy  4) Come up with a social media plan for the residency  You don’t need to do every platform, but you’re missing significant opportunities if you don’t have a plan  You don’t need daily posts Challenge

 5) Work with Libby Mitchell and Kathy Wilets in PR for assistance  6) Find a faculty champion and staff assistance  We spend a total of about 2 hours per week between both staff and faculty for this  Our goal: minimum 2 posts on Facebook per week; minimum 5 posts on Twitter per week; min 1 blog post per week  7) Set up a plan for educating residents and faculty in social media use  We do a Grand Rounds presentation and are discussing other venues for training Challenge

Questions?