The change-resistant keep repeating that phrase to themselves like a mantra but docs seem to be holding their own with the “social media guru” types in the increasingly post-geekdominant twitterverse.
I observed one of the more interesting examples of this adoption a couple of weeks ago. My friend and co-worker Jennifer Texada wrote about it on her blog. I’m the unnamed colleague mentioned in her post:
A colleague here at the hospital told me about this one. What is happening here is a Doctor in South Africa is at bedside asking a Doctor in India for real time assistance with a diagnosis. From other correspondence he has with this doctor in India, it is clear that he knows him personally and/or professionally, so he is a trusted source from the requestor’s position.
From the message it sounds like he was probably bedside, maybe in a rural area. If you follow the stream it ends there. I expect that if the doctor replied it was probably in the form of a direct message. Which is a private message between 2 twitter users.
My college said that “if this was not a first, it was among the first time that he has seen this happen.” Especially in places where you might not have access to experts. The personal relationships you develop could extend all the way to the bedside, no matter where the bedside is.
Even more interesting, in some respects, is the Twitter exchange between Baltimore doctor Gary Kerkvliet, Comcast, and Verizon documented by Julio Ojeda-Zapata:
Stories of one company or another coming to the aid of its customers via Twitter are now legion. Consumer-facing firms like Comcast have made it a priority to scan the twitterverse for unhappy customers and to make them happy.
What you will find less often on Twitter are stories of one customer being simultaneously wooed by multiple companies eager for that person’s brand loyalty.
That’s just what happened to Baltimore doctor Gary Kerkvliet, who found himself being courted by Comcast and Verizon — via tweets and direct messages — for his home-Internet business.
Kerkvliet would ultimately become a champion of both companies — despite having initially horrific problems with one and ending up with the other.
Dr. Kevin Pho at KevinMD also points to the increasing use of Twitter at medical conferences:
More physicians are using the microblog service Twitter. This past weekend, two medical conferences were updated by the minute from plugged in doctors.
Clinical Cases and Images’ Ves Dimov and emergency resident Graham Walker brought us the NEJM’s Horizons Conference, where they provided their input and expertise to influence the NEJM in their Web 2.0 initiatives.
Rural hospitalist Theresa Chan was also prolific in updating the Management of the Hospitalized Patient conference in San Francisco, sharing valuable tips from the lectures.
Someone obviously forgot to tell Dr. Kevin Pho that physicians will never blog either.
Update:
How could I forget the 28,000+ Twitter updates from my friend Dr. Cameron Kaiser?
I guess I’m different. I’ve been blogging since ‘06. I Tweet @doctor_v