Social media has expanded the communication opportunities between consumers and brands all over the world. Professionals that rely on client communications are also leveraging social communications both as means of engaging with existing clients and patients as well as to create awareness and engagement with new “customers”.
The power of the Internet is the power of the patient, who can now research treatments, compare physicians, and collaborate with doctors, who may not always—in fact, don’t typically, according to Timimi—have the time or budget to conduct the kind of in-depth research their patients can and will because, frankly, they’re damn motivated. There’s nothing like learning the horizon of your life has been foreshortened to push you into the Internet rabbit hole of research.
And while physicians may still caution their patients to take what they find on the Internet with a grain of salt, this is increasingly suspect advice, as good sources of information proliferate as widely as the bad.
In the end, discerning which sources are trustworthy and which aren’t comes down to critical faculties independent of the medium—in other words, it’s on you as much as it is on the physician to ensure you’re looking at accurate information. Indeed, it may weigh more heavily on doctors.
Their sacrosanct role weakens each day as participatory medicine, which recognizes patients as empowered collaborators in their own care, as well as consumers with choices, grows in popularity.
The human bandwidth, immense and formidable
Timimi gets it, and this is why, when asked by a conference attendee whether Mayo staff could be on Facebook during work hours, he replied:
I want our human bandwidth to be part of this conversation. Our advantage is our human bandwidth, not our online bandwidth.
How, then, to maximize that bandwidth, according to Timimi?
- If your organization doesn’t already have social media guidelines, develop them and make sure your staff receives training and orientation. Too few healthcare entities have social media policies, says Timimi, making it difficult for staff to adequately identify social media opportunities for their organizations.
- Spend time lurking. Many physicians are leery of social media because they fear legal threats; maybe they’ll be sued by a patient who misconstrues a Twitter comment and takes the wrong medication. But, says Timimi to the risk-adverse, it’s the same risk cocktail that’s been served for the last 30 years.When physicians are dinged, it’s for the same old reasons —an inappropriate relationship with a patient, say, or they’ve misrepresented who they are as a physician.So, for the pioneering doctor who braves the social media ether, it’s useful to first listen in on the communities you want to join. “Just like a good marriage, you’re judged more on how well you listen than on what you say,” said Timimi.
- Always surmise that HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, applies. Concern about HIPPA gives many a healthcare practitioner pause when they’re considering joining the social media fray, so just assume it applies and venture forth.
- Define your goals. Remember that you represent yourself as well as your organization. It’s not just Team Hospital; it’s also Player Physician.
- Mistakes will be made. Continuing the baseball analogy, Timimi reminded the audience that it’s a long season; you don’t call it quits because of a fielding error in one game. On the flip side, “social media doesn’t make people misbehave. It just makes your mistakes very public,” he said.