Doctors, The Internet, And Social Media

As you know, or can probably figure out, I have an interest (or even a passion for) medicine and technology. So, I very much have an interest to see how technology can help me in my job. I have particular interest in seeing how social media (blogs, podcasts, facebook, twitter, etc) can help me communicate the message better.

This past week, Dr. Kevin Pho, better known as KevinMD, had an op-ed piece in USA Today online entitled "Doctors Ignore Internet At Their Own Peril." It's no secret that Kevin has used social media and the internet to help get the message out on the unique physician view on medical and health policy issues. In his own Linked In profile, Kevin describes himself as "Social media's leading physician voice," and I very much agree with that. In the USA Today piece he says this:

Doctors who are not active online risk being marginalized. Facebook and Twitter users, half of whom are under of age of 34, rely on the web for most of their information. As this demographic ages, it’s conceivable that they will consult social media first to answer their health questions.

Below, you'll see two TV interviews I did on December 18, 2009, on local TV news, talking about Doctors and the Internet (link to interview1 and interview 2).

Almost every day, I have patients ask me about information that they read online or heard from a friend which then directed the patient to search online for more information. I agree with Kevin that docs that continue to marginalize online information or marginalize social media - will themselves be marginalized. (If you would like to see more of my interviews from local TV news on a variety of topics, check out MikeSevilla.TV)

Facebook/Twitter Break? FAIL!

Two weeks ago, I set a goal for myself. I told myself that I would "unplug" from both Twitter and Facebook for two weeks. Initially, that meant not even logging into each of the sites and checking what was going on. Well, I'm proud to say that lasted a mere four days. FAIL!

After I logged in (four days later), I then told myself that on Facebook, I would not leave any comments or do any of that "thumbs up" thing that is so easy to do. Well, that lasted another two days. FAIL! I mean, hey, it is so easy to hit the "like" button when you see something funny or just agree with something you see. And, I couldn't help, but comment on a thing or two on FB.

Finally, I told myself that I would not leave a status update or tweet for the remainder of the two week period. Well, during and after the iPad announcement, I just couldn't hold back any more. I wrote a blog post, and I couldn't help but just post up a link on twitter telling people about it. Oh well.

Even though, I say "fail," I don't think that it was (really). I also told myself that I wanted to start blogging (in a long format as opposed to microblogging) again. And I think that I have found the "blogging bug" again - which is a good thing. I have a handful of posts here in "draft" mode and I hope to get back to them to finish.

In addition, my brief "unplugging" experiment told me that I used the computer as an easy excuse for not getting out there and hanging out with real people - in person - here - where I live. I was always thinking of what the next tweet or facebook update would be.

As I jump back into the sea of facebook and twitter after a semi-sucessful mission, one of the things I've definitely decided upon is that I will not be updating as much as I have in the past (really). I apologize if anyone thought I had abandoned these platforms. I was just taking a little break. Now, I'm back. But, I won't be tweeting or updating as much as before. And, that's a good thing, I think.....

iPad For Medicine Is About The Software

In kind of browsing around today, it seems that almost every industry - including education, aviation, business, and medicine - is excited about the latest Apple piece of hardware called the iPad. It's so entertaining reading the apple haters and those in the tech industry complain about the iPad - sheesh!

Anyway, focusing back on the medicine and health care industry, there have been a number of posts that I have read talking about the potential of the Apple iPad device. On KevinMD, Steve Woodruff has a good piece touting the awesome hardware potential of the device and the ideal end point of its use in the medical setting.

A heavily referenced article is from Venture Beat called "Apple tablet reps spotted at LA hospital" which talks about how Apple reps were there "three or four times" in the weeks leading up to the iPad launch. Rumors included that hospital execs and even some docs got to see previews of this piece of hardware.

In an article from TinyComb, they make reference to Motion Computing and their mobile model called the "C5." The C5 is 3-pounds (iPad is 1.5 pounds) and has a price tag of $2199 (iPad base price is $499). We use the C5 device in our hospital. So, I'm familiar with it's pluses and minuses for uses in the clinical setting.

In my view, all of this early analysis misses the point. As a hardware device, I would love to use this in my job right now in the hospital and in the office. I would love to let go of my netbook at the office and use the iPad. I would love to make my hospital rounds with the touch screen and get everything done using this cool form factor.

But, it's not about the hardware people. It's all about the software. Will the corporate EMR hospital and office vendors write updates and patches for iPad? I really doubt that (at this point). I mean they are busy as it is with their own interoperability issues as well as big picture issues like keeping up with CCHIT certification and the mysterious term called "Meaningful Use" which helps hospitals and doctors obtain federal stimulus monies for "meaningful use" of EMRs.

I can just see EMR vendors saying now, "Oh yeah, we can write software to use iPad on the hospital system. It will be an additional (several) hundred thousand dollar price tag for that feature. And, we agree. It'll be cool to see iPads using our system..."

Don't get me wrong, I'm as excited about iPad as the people in the articles above. But, don't expect iPad's impact for medicine to be anytime soon, or to come at a cheap price for hospitals or doctor's offices.....

Update: Greeting to those of you who clicked over from The Blog that Ate Manhattan, Health Highlights, Grand Rounds v6.19, MobiHealthNews, or Wall Street Journal link. I invite you to check out other posts over here. Thanks for stopping by!

Apple Tablet?

I don't know about you, but I'm more interested in what Steve is going to say tomorrow verses the State of the Union address from Washington. What many people fear (me included) is the possibility that instead of the awesomeness of an iPhone type announcement - what we'll get instead is along the lines of the "mac cube" which flopped a year after it was triumphantly brought out by Steve. We'll see what happens tomorrow....

2009 Medgadget Weblog Award Finalists

Yes kids, it's that time of year again when we vote for our favorite medical weblogs for the previous year. This is of course from our friends at Medgadget. And, you can take a look at all the finalists here. In 2008, I had the honor of having Dr. Nick Genes on Doctor Anonymous Show number 19 to talk all about the Medgadget Medblog Awards. You can listen on the player below. Or, you can download the show here and listen anytime.


Later that month in Jan 2008, Nick returned to the show with the other Medgadget guys to make a final push for voting that year. I believe even Mr. Paul Levy himself called into the show trying to get himself some votes. Listen in the player below or download Dr. A Show 21 right here.


Now, the category that is near and dear to my heart is the Best New Medical Weblog category. Back in the day (hehe) when I was a better blogger than I am now, I begged to be nominated for the best new blog award, and I begged to be voted for - way back in 2007. Who won that category that year? Interestingly enough it was the notorious Dr. Flea.

Anyway, I normally don't do endorsements. I mean, not that anything I say would influence anyone to vote one way or the other. I did want to point out one blog in the New Medblog category called StorytellERdoc.

I have to tell you, if you haven't checked out this blog - you have to. It's a great read. And, for what it's worth, I encourage you to vote for this blog in this category. Best of luck to all the nominated blogs across all the categories this year. And, please show some love and cast your vote to whomever you think is the best in each of the categories...

Quit Smoking & Survive Lung Cancer

Yes, you read that title right. Intuitively, it makes sense. Quit smoking and you can decrease your chance of lung cancer. But, now, there is data out there that patients with early lung cancer - who quit smoking - not only increase their rate of survival - they can double their chances of survival. The article talking about they study is from the Associated Press entitled, "Smokers With Cancer Could Quit And Double Survival."

People with lung cancer who continued smoking had a 29 to 33 percent chance of surviving five years. But those who kicked the habit had a 63 to 70 percent chance of being alive after five years. The research was published Friday in the BMJ, formerly known as the British Medical Journal. Lung cancer is the top cancer worldwide, and the prognosis is usually poor. Only about 7 percent of patients make it to five years, though about 20 percent of patients are diagnosed early enough to be treated.

"The message is you should never give up on giving up (smoking)," said Amanda Parsons, of the U.K. Centre for Tobacco Control Studies at the University of Birmingham, who led the study. "Even at the stage where you have been diagnosed with early stage lung cancer ... if you give up smoking, your body can still partially recover and your risk is reduced," she said.

I once thought (and a lot of patients thought) that when you are diagnosed with lung cancer - it doesn't matter if you quit smoking or not. I fully admit that I have never smoked, ever. I don't personally know how difficult it is to quit. But, I have a lot of patients, who I talk with every day, and, they tell me the struggles that they go through when they try to quit again, and again, and again. At least I can tell them that even if you are diagnosed with early lung cancer, there is data out there saying that it is still not too late to quit smoking....