Archive
Social Media DOES impact number of Views in a Scientific Article
A recent article was published in Circulation “A Randomized Trial of Social Media from Circulation” that concluded “A social media strategy for a cardiovascular journal did not increase the number of times an article was viewed”. Social Media use involved postings on the journal’s Facebook and Twitter feeds.
Social Media is not about just posting, sharing and retweeting. There are many variables that play an important role on how social media would impact a particular outcome. 1) Who is doing it? 2) How many followers the individual have and what type of followers are they. 3) Timing is key, there are studies out there showing when is the correct time to use Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, WordPress in order to get the most traffic. 4) In addition, articles should not only be available to physicians. We live in an empowering world, with intelligent patients that also want to learn about medical advances and many are more than fit to understand our articles even without a medical degree, this I guarantee. Therefore cost is definitely an issue and this is the reason why sometimes the summaries made in blogs regarding a particular article get thousands of more views than the original content.
Social Media is not just about posting, there is truly an interesting art behind it. From eloquent titles to intriguing eye captivating graphics. An fantastic platform that not many physicians are aware of is Reddit. This is a precious resource if you know how to use it properly but watch out there are also dark corners involved. In reddit just choose your particular field of interest (called a subreddit) and dig in. The Subreddit SCIENCE is particulary interesting, full of intelligent individuals who offer amazing knowledge in their discussions. Yes, also a lot of trolls but an interesting “world” nevertheless.
My point? Well my point is that Social Media does affect number of views and even though I congratulate the authors efforts I do not necessarily agree with them . Below you have an example of an article I was following in http://reddit.com/r/science. In the morning and then 6 hours later. It was coincidentally an article AHAJournals “Adherence to a Mediterranean Diet and Prediction of Incident Stroke”
Just from reddit, this article got at least 133 views (people can upvote and downvote and article, number goes up and down depending on this). Now look 6 hours later how many people actually LIKED the post 3123. This means that thanks to reddit this article got at least 3123 views of which some of this individuals went to share the article in their own personal social networks.
This is just one example of how Social Media DOES impact how our findings and articles get seen.
Medical Records were not meant to be “Sugarcoated”
I have spoken recently with several doctors that are changing the way they write their notes and thus relevant patient information. Why? Simple, a great thing is happening, patients are beginning to embrace digital health , learning more about their diseases/conditions and accessing, studying and understanding their medical records.
Here is the kicker…Sometimes in life we hear others addressing personal issues that even though they are true, they are uncomfortable to hear. Some can easily ignore them, others may feel insulted and/or aggravated. This is extremely important to YOU, yes you who is reading this, since you now have easy access to your Medical records.
Medical records are not meant to be a story. They were not made to be easy on our ears. They are scientific data used to capture facts. They are the mixture of years of training, medical knowledge, experience, and a patient-doctor relationship.
Why is this important? A chart might say; Mr. X is a delightful, pleasant individual, who exercises daily and is very involved with his health. Fantastic right? Well yes but the opposite is true. Mr. X can also be obese 57 year old individual, with a 20 pack year history who is not compliant with his medications. Mr. X mentions that he has no money for his medications but yet he is able to buy a pack a day of cigarettes. The latter, mentions facts that are not pleasant to hear but may be the truth.
I am now encountering physicians, being contacted by their patients, arguing that they do not appreciate being called obese in the note. They do not appreciate hearing that they are not compliant when obviously they are not. Since physicians do not want to aggravate more people then they reword or simply refrain from placing particular information in the chart. Information that other physicians will find valuable because it can change the way they will address the case.
Bottom line is, when WE encounter this situation, before WE get angry we have to reflect and ask ourselves, “Is this true?”
I have modified my lifestyle thanks to comments like this. Comments that were not easy to digest but the truth nonetheless.
============================================================================
September 27, 2014
* EDIT1: If you would like to engage on a conversation regarding this post, it has been posted in reddit http://www.reddit.com/r/medicine/comments/2hkzag/are_we_entering_the_era_of_sugarcoating_medical/
* EDIT 2: Thanks to Dr. Jack Minas for sharing “Interview with Eric Topol: Do Docs & Patients See Eye-to-Eye?” Interesting comment here “54% of patients say they own their medical records vs 39% of doctors who say they own them. Although there is confusion on the part of doctors and patients, but some medical associations are pretty clear that the records belong to physicians. Check this out: The Texas Medical Association states, “Although the medical record contains patient information, the physical documents belong to the physician. Indeed, the medical record is a tool created by the physician to support patient care and is an asset of the practice.”
The Role of Google Glass in Healthcare
I picked up my google GLASS last week and so far I am very happy with them. Describing them with words would not do them justice. Since many colleagues and friends have been asking about them I decided to make a small video. Please excuse video quality and lack of editing. I am moving and not much time in my hands
The first video shows the unboxing of glass, second one I briefly mention potential uses, and third the official Google Glass tutorial on getting started.
If you have any questions feel free to contact me. Twitter Christianassad and same goes for google+
Exciting times ahead in Medicine!
1) Glass Unboxing
2) Just some few Examples of Potential Glass uses in Healthcare
3) The original Google Glass getting started video
A post that you might also find helpful comes from Melissa McCormack, Managing Editor of Software Advice’s The Profitable Practice.
Google Glass: Whether or not you’re excited about its use as a consumer device, you have to recognize the potential benefits it can offer the medical community. Software Advice, a company that connects medical software buyers to live expertise, contemplates a few of the potential uses for Glass in health care.
One exciting possibility is the use of Glass in surgery. There are the academic uses of course: a surgeon live-streaming her procedure to a group of medical students, or a surgical resident streaming his procedure to a supervising physician. Compared to current video conferencing technology, Glass would save time in setup and provide an easy and compelling first-person view of the action.
But there are other potential surgical uses as well. For example, a surgeon could video conference with consulting specialists during a procedure – and that feedback could be delivered directly to his plane of vision, rather than the surgeon having to reference a peripheral screen.
Along those same lines, think about surgeries where X-ray, ultrasound, or camera-equipped scopes are used to track positioning of surgical instruments. Those images, too, could be delivered to a surgeon “in eye” instead of him having to move focus from the patient to a screen. Here, Glass facilitates the ideal alignment of the surgeon’s attention with the patient.
To read about other potential uses of Glass in medicine, view the full article here: http://profitable-practice.softwareadvice.com/will-google-glass-change-the-face-of-medicine-0613/ below is a summary she has done of the article but I suggest checking the full article for a more descriptive experience.
Christian Assad, MD Interventional Endovascular Cardiology
TikTok Humor
Videos
Amazon iFastLoCa Keto List
El Rincon del Dr. KakaWate 