Physicians and social media - ACP Hospitalist features Dr. Rob

From ACP Hospitalist:

"Dr. Lamberts’ words aren’t just vanishing into cyberspace. His blog, Musings of a Distractible Mind, gets about 20,000 visitors who view 50,000 pages a month, according to his own analytics data. By the end of 2009, his list of Twitter followers numbered nearly 1,500 and counting.

Today’s physicians have an ever-expanding number of social media vehicles through which to express themselves. Tools like Twitter, Facebook and blogging can potentially help physicians better educate and interact with patients, perhaps even humanizing themselves in the process. But mishandling that powerful online megaphone can potentially risk, or at the very least blur, the doctor-patient relationship, according to social media-savvy physicians.

Initially, when he was virtually unread, Dr. Lamberts said he blogged about a few interesting cases, always cloaking the patient details. But he soon halted that practice."

I follow a similar approach described in detail in the website disclaimer:

"There is no real life patient data on this website. Please note: we do not write or “blog” about patients. All case descriptions are fictional, similar to the descriptions you can find in a multiple choice questions textbook for board exam preparation. Cases course and description do not follow real cases."

http://clinicalcases.org/2002/01/disclaimer-and-terms-of-use-agreement.html

Image source: OpenClipArt.org, public domain.

Related:

Hospitalist evolution? "Extensivist" = hospitalist who prevents readmissions by seeing patients after discharge

"On a typical morning, Sandip Patel, MD, a hospitalist employed by a health plan in Southern California, rounds on patients at the hospital, then meets with case managers and a medical director to review care plans and decide which patients will stay or go.

In the afternoon, Dr. Patel may see recently discharged patients—those coded "red" or "yellow," based on medical complexity—at an integrated-care center, which is also owned and run by the health plan. Then he might head to a nursing home to check on patients discharged a week ago.

Dr. Patel considers himself an "extensivist" with a goal to reduce readmissions. "Lowering readmission rates is within the purview of the hospitalists."

References:
Health-plan hospitalists cut readmissions—by sometimes leaving the hospital. Today's Hospitalist, 2010.
Median adult hospitalist compensation up slightly to $220,619 in 2010 http://goo.gl/D9rHp

Image source: sxc.hu