1. Social Media for Healthcare Practitioners
Anamaria Tivadar
Social Marketing and Communications Specialist, CATIE

2. Topics Covered
Overview:
 Defining social media and examining the global reach
 The importance of social media to HCPs and the benefits
to using these tools
 Challenges faced by HCPs when engaging in social media
and ways to overcome them
 Privacy/confidentiality regulations for HCPs
 Overview of the main social media tools
 In-depth look at Twitter
 Real-life applications of social media and technology

3. The evolution of information and media
In the last 25 years or so, the way we store, share and exchange
information has drastically changed:
1980: Traditional Media 2012: Web 2.0
Encyclopedia Wikipedia
Resume or journal Blogs
Address Book Facebook, LinkedIn
Tape or CD MySpace, Itunes
Mail Email, meetup.com
Videotapes, DVDs, movie store YouTube, Vimeo, Netflix
Hard-copies written on Twitter, Slideshare, Google Docs,
typewriters, passed around from Scribd – online collaboration on a
person to person global level among hundreds to
thousands of people
* Fraser, Rob. Nurses‟ social media advantage

4. Social Media Reach
• 800 million ~ Facebook users worldwide. Half sign on every
day.
• 3.5 billion posts / contents are shared each week on
Facebook
• 25 million Canadians have a Facebook account
• 200 million Twitter accounts worldwide
• 1.6 billion search queries every day on Twitter
• 182 million public blogs worldwide
• 50-75% of medical students in Canada are on social
media
• 261 + Canadian hospitals have either a Facebook
page, Twitter account, blog or YouTube channel
• 240 HIV and hep C organizations are on Twitter in
Canada

5. What is Social Media?
New medium that allows us to have
‘real-time’ conversations with
individuals, organizations, and
communities around the globe
• Social networking + new media
• Instantaneous, casual, global and public
• A set of online tools that never stop evolving
• Social media is all about building relationships
“Social media is the use of technology combined with social interaction to
collaborate, create and share” – Colleen Young
“ While the Internet has made information available to the masses, social media
have facilitated connections between individuals who consume this information,
globally.” – Naheed Dosani, MD

6. What can Social Media do for Healthcare
Practitioners?
Social Media is a tool that can advance your work.
How?
 Have your voices be heard to shape the future of health care
 Assume leadership role by sharing timely and accurate health
information, instantaneously
 Foster more prevention-focused HIV and/or hep C health dialogue
and promote positive disease-management experience
 Share information as you do at conferences, but on an on-going
basis, in an informal way
 Connect with peers across Canada and the world
 Highlight relevant information for patients who search online

7. Social Media = Knowledge Exchange
Social Media flattens out the hierarchies and make everyone more accessible
Doctors
Doctors Researchers
Patients
Patients
AIDS
Service
Orgs
Nurses

8. How can health care practitioners use
social media?
Health care professionals can use social media in 3 main
areas:
1. Treat and engage patients
2. Provide timely and credible education
3. Share medical information and knowledge

9. Benefits – Engage Patients
Patients want to become more engaged in their own
care and use social media tools to do this.
 68% of adults search the internet for health information;
 75% of patients who found health information online said it
affected their decisions about their treatment;
 69% of patients decided to seek a healthcare professional
based on what they found on the internet;
 57% of patients changed the way they manage their chronic
disease;
*Based on a study conducted by the Journal of
Medical Internet Research

10. Benefits – Educate Patients
Daily health tips from the experts at St.
Michael‟s Hospital
Dr. Yonni Freedhoff - Family physician,
Assistant Prof. at the University of Ottawa,
and founder of Ottawa's Bariatric Medical
Institute

11. Benefits – Share Knowledge
Traditional medical journals and
medical associations use social
media to share news and content:
• New England Journal of
Medicine
• The Lancet
• Journal of American Medical
Association
• The Canadian Medical
Association Journal
• Canadian Family Physician
Journal
• Ontario Medical Association

12. Challenges to using Social Media
1. Time constraints - social media needs to be viewed as a better
method to access knowledge and share information online
2. No control over who can find you online
3. Safeguarding professional and organizational credibility
4. Patient confidentiality and privacy

13. Freedom of speech vs. privacy
Health care professionals‟ strict privacy
regulations are aimed at protecting patient‟s
rights and confidentiality through firm and
explicit standards, and through provincial and
federal laws.
vs.
Social media encourages open interactions and
immediate sharing of personal information.
Everything that is posted online is also public
info.

14. Privacy and Confidentiality
Canadian Medical Association‟ response to social media:
“When communicating through social media, physicians must
remember they remain governed by the same ethical and
professional standards that have always applied and are
paramount. “
Information required to remain confidential:
• Identifiable health information (diagnosis and symptoms)
• Patient personal information (name, ethnicity, age, etc.), which in a
small or rural community could expose the patient‟s identity
• Communication with patient should be done face-to-face or through a
secure electronic communication platform
• Physicians should use the most stringent security and privacy settings
available on social media platforms

15. Ways to manage risk
1. Create separate professional social media accounts
2. Connect only with fellow colleagues, HIV organizations and other
medical professionals online
3. Encourage your organization to define guidelines and policies
regarding the use of social media
(www.socialmediagovernance.com)
4. Do not post any information related to a particular patient
5. Do not post any pictures from your workplace
6. Speak in general terms about your work experiences
7. If unsure, take the discussion „offline‟ – email, phone or in person
8. Pause and count to 3 before you post!

16. Social Media Tools

17. Social Media Tools: Content Creation
Blog Content:
• Regular entries (journal entries) on a topic
• Relevant information, resources, and images
• Interactive- readers can provide feedback and
comments to the author
• Personal or collaborative effort
• Chronological order or indexed by subject
YouTube • Content:
• Video blog in the form of a „YouTube Channel‟
• Users can upload videos for public viewing, watch and
comment on videos uploaded by others
Privacy • Blogs and YouTube channels are usually public
and Disclaimers can be used to provide context to opinions
Security expressed

18. HIV and health-related blogs
Access information through the
many HIV-related health blogs
available via ASO and frontline
organizations

19. Social Media Tools: Content Sharing
Scribd • Scribd is the world‟s largest social reading and
publishing company
• You can publish any document on this site for
free
• Easy to share and discover informative and
original written content online or on mobile
devices
Slideshare • Slideshare is the world's largest community for
sharing presentations.
• Supports documents, PDFs, videos and
webinars
• Upload and view presentations online
Privacy and • Profiles on either platform are public, but can
Security be created under any alias name. Content and
activity can be promoted through social
networking channels.

20. Content Sharing: Slideshare
Download this presentation from Slideshare:
http://www.slideshare.net/CATIEInfo

21. Social Media Tools: Networking
Facebook • 750 million members
• Social networking site where users have a profile
• Share personal and/or professional information,
photos and commentary
• Users create lists of other users, or „friends‟, with
whom they connect and interact
• Interaction: liking, commenting, sharing posts
Privacy and • Privacy:
Security  Page = public
 Group = members only
 Personal account = based on privacy
settings
• Conservative approach is best assumed: if it‟s on
a social media site, assume it‟s not private nor
confidential.

22. Facebook – Fan Page
Connect with other organizations or
associations via their Facebook Fan
Pages. CATIE is connected with over
530 Facebook users, of which 100 are
fellow HIV and hep C organizations.

23. Social Media Tools: Networking
LinkedIn • 150 million members
• A professional network site designed specifically
for the business community
• Professionals create a profile for networking,
making business contacts or hiring employees
• Content is in CV-style format
• Interaction: join groups and discussions; search
job openings, follow companies, institutions and
organizations
Privacy and • Online profile can be adjusted to strict privacy
security settings to determine visibility

24. Social Media Tools: Networking
Twitter • 500 million users
• A social network site where users connect and
interact with each other through the use of very
short messages („tweets‟)
• Content includes opinions, updates on recent
activities, and may be personal and/or
professional in nature
• Content often includes a web link referring
audiences to a specific web page
Privacy and • Permission is usually not required to „follow‟
Security another account, unless account is „protected‟
• Public account = complete online visibility
• Protected account = followers need
permission to see your tweets, but can still
publicly retweet an update.

25. Twitter: Basic Principles
There are two basic principles to Twitter to keep in mind:
1. Chances are if you find something interesting or useful to know,
others will find it interesting too.
2. You can follow anyone and everyone can share and see each
other‟s posts

26. Why would Healthcare providers use
Twitter?
If you‟re going to engage on only one social media platform, it
must be Twitter!
“Twitter is a global phenomena, giving us total, global access to
knowledge”
• Communicate with other
nurses, physicians, researchers, dieticians, or organizations
around the world
• Share information and conversations within a
community, instantaneously
• Twitter allows healthcare professionals to have
permanent, unfiltered, unedited access to otherwise never-
published information, such as on the job experiences, opinions
on articles or research papers, patients‟ feedback to treatment
or adherence.

27. Twitter Dos
Dos:
• 140 characters limit
• Use abbreviations in tweets in order to save characters
• Shorten URLs using websites like tinyurl.com or ow.ly
• Include #hashtags in your tweets
• Give credit by retweeting (RT) or mentioning (MT) others.
• Include a „call to action‟ and insert a weblink.
• Be inspirational - motivate and influence followers by
using some of your favorite quotes.
• Add value to your audience today - health tips, treatment
tips, health facts, etc.
• Be human – people trust other people.

28. Twitter Dictionary
• Tweet = an individual post on Twitter
• Follow = a way to subscribe to receive an individual‟s or an
organization‟s Twitter updates.
• MT (Mentions) - a tweet that contains @username anywhere in the body
of the tweet
• RT (Retweet) - sharing another user‟s tweet with followers, usually by
using the phrase “RT@username”
• DM (Direct Message) - a private Twitter message sent via Twitter
accounts who follow each other
• #Hashtag = a way to categorize tweets around a particular topic.
Manifested as a subject or topic preceded by the # symbol.

29. CATIE’s Communication Toolkit
For more information on effective tweeting or popular hashtags, you
can download these guides from CATIE‟s website in the
Media & Communications section:
http://www.catie.ca/en/about-catie/media-and-communications/toolkit

30. # HCSMCA - Health Care Social Media Canada
#hcsmca is a vibrant community of people interested in exploring social
innovations in health care. Participants share and learn, and together are
making health care more open and connected.
Who participates in #hcsmca chats?
• Anyone delivering and receiving health care
• Patients, caregivers, advocates
• Healthcare professionals
• Non-for-profit health organizations
• Educators
• Health content providers
• Health institutions
• Government
• Health Policy Makers
When?
Every Wednesday at 1pm ET (2pm AT, noon CT, 11am MT, 10am PT)

31. #HSCMCA Chat – July 4th, 2012
Why should a busy MD care about social media or even use
social media?
Increases effectiveness during appointments
• Saves time and connects MDs with key people – patients, researchers,
funders, colleagues
• SM is becoming a new means of communicating online and
communication is key to effective MD/patient relationship
Increase patients’ knowledge
• Benefit is in knowing where patient populations are looking for info
online, and what questions to address in office or during patient
appointments
• SM is an opportunity for MDs to address inaccuracy of information
online
Increase MDs’ knowledge
• Respond to misleading, confusing, scaremongering news headlines
• It‟s about collaborating and sharing ideas with HCPs and patients

32. Applications – Association Facebook Page
The Canadian
Federation of Medical
Students
The national
representative body for
medical students
659 members on
Facebook
Discussions regarding
geographical
representation of
doctors in Canada,
announcements for
conferences, deadlines,
etc.

33. Applications – CATIE’s Mobile App
YourDocTalk
YourDocTalk is an app
developed by CATIE to
guide PHAs in a
discussion with their
doctor about HIV
treatment.
PHAs answer a series of
questions to create a list
of points to discuss with
his/her doctor.
Available November 1st
www.catie.ca
Together they will work
to ensure the patient‟s
treatment plan is right
for him/her.

34. Applications – Social micro sites for
patients
Healthism
A US project designed to
help people maintain their
own health.
Includes an online website
where patients can zone in
on their specific health
needs.
Ask an MD questions
online, or use several
web-based tools and
apps, to assess different
factors in their health.

35. Resources
1. Social Media guidelines and policies. The Mayo Clinic
http://socialmedia.mayoclinic.org/about-3/
2. Privacy of personal health information. Canadian Medical
Association. http://www.cma.ca/advocacy/social-media-
canadian-physicians
3. Healthcare hashtags. The Healthcare Hashtag Project.
http://www.symplur.com/healthcare-hashtags/
4. How to write an effective tweet. CATIE
www.catie.ca/en/aboutcatie/communicationstoolkit
5. How to use hashtags. CATIE.
www.catie.ca/en/aboutcatie/communicationstoolkit

36. Questions?
Thank You!
ativadar@catie.ca
Follow CATIE on Twitter:
@CATIEInfo