Category: #HCSM

Today’s post is from Michelle Lin (@M_Lin), who is the editor-in-chief for Academic Life in Emergency Medicine (ALiEM).  AliEM has > 2M unique visits each year, an indirect marker of the influence of this site.  Michelle has received an endowed chair in emergency medicine education at the University of California, San Francisco, in part, for her work in social media.

ALiEM is not an isolated phenomenon in emergency medicine. Life in the Fast Lane is an Australian-based site founded by Mike Cadogan (@sandnsurf) and Chris Nickson (precordialthump) that is equally influential within emergency medicine.  (Bias alert… I’m an emergency physician…) So, why is the clinical specialty of emergency medicine at the forefront of social media and education? 33 Charts asked the question last month and suggested an answer. Today, Michelle gives her take.

–   Jonathan

The Twitter Back Channel

The term “back channel” generally refers to an online conversation about a conference topic or speaker. Twitter is now used extensively by both delegates at a conference and also by those wishing to follow tweets made by those attending, as a means of engaging in conversations relating to conference keynotes, workshops and other activities taking place, and as a way of sharing to their followers snippets of useful information. For many it also serves as a tweet event diary – a means of taking notes on key points throughout a talk or the event as a whole. The audience for conference and event tweets extends beyond those attending and opens up engagement from anyone following the hashtag or even happening upon tweets made by people they follow.

Preparation before an event

Choose a hashtag: You will need to choose a hashtag for your event. This should be short and…

James Marcus – social media and digital content specialist at the NHS Leadership Academy
@JamesMarcus_

Last year, I was proud (and relieved) to obtain my post graduate certificate from the Academy’s Mary Seacole programme. The programme was really hard work and it certainly wasn’t without its challenges for me.

In all honesty, I did struggle during the early stages of the programme because I was having a difficult time relating the course content to my non-clinical area of work. I felt out of my depth attending workshops with clinical staff caring for patient’s day in, day out, struggling with the pressures in their role.

Now over a year on, I could not be happier that I stuck with it, and I appreciated very quickly that it wasn’t about who faced the biggest challenges, but just to be grateful for the rare opportunity to spend time connecting and learning with colleagues…

Social Media and healthcare conversations – it’s personal.

Before Christmas I was sharing my experience of using Social Media with NHS Lay Member colleagues at a network meeting in Manchester.

(a href=”http://www.freepik.com/free-photos-vectors/infographic”>Infographic vector designed by Freepik</a>)

Now I’m no communication expert, just an enthusiastic amateur, but fortunately at the meeting I did have a fellow colleague, George Wright, Digital Communications Manager at North West Commissioning Support Unit (NWCSU) who is, and who set the scene about how the use of Social Media and specifically Twitter has developed in the NHS.

George talked about how the NHS use of Twitter includes campaigns, information and engagement but that there has been a noticeable shift for many in healthcare to move from ‘broadcast to conversation’ and from organisations to individuals. A similar theme echoed in the title of Euan Semple’s book Organisations Don’t Tweet, People do. which makes for some useful reading.

My…

When discussing telehealth, one first needs to refer to definitions. The Health Resources Services Administration defines telehealth as “The use of electronic information and telecommunications technologies to support long-distance clinical health care, patient and professional health-related education, public health and health administration.”  It is differentiated from telemedicine which is focused on remote clinical services. Telehealth today is most commonly associated with video conferencing between a provider and patient. However healthcare encompasses more than the encounter and includes support processes and tools which will hopefully contribute to better outcomes. Electronic health records and interoperability of examination tools with video technology now permit a virtual exam similar to an in-person one. There are now well-defined clinical practice guidelines for telehealth by the American Telehealth Association.  I will discuss ways in which telehealth will provide benefits to both patients and providers.

1. Telehealth will place the patient as the focal point of care. It…