Twitter to Tenure: 7 ways social media advances my career

2 05 2011

As part of our SGIM Social Media Workshop “From Twitter to Tenure” our workshop lineup of ’twitterati’ will be posting each day this week about how social media affected their career.   So yesterday was @AlexSmithMD on GeriPal.   Here is the schedule for the week:  Monday – me (@FutureDocs) here on Futuredocs; Tuesday – Bob Centor (@medrants) on DB’s Medical Rants; Wednesday – Kathy Chretien (@MotherinMed) on Mother’s in Medicine; Thursday – Eric Widera (@ewidera) on GeriPal (and hope to see you in Phoenix for our workshop!)

For the Twitter to Tenure workshop at this year’s Society of General Internal Medicine Meeting, I was asked to think about how social media enhanced my career.  This may sound ridiculous at first- after all, social media is a big waste of time right? Wrong as some of you have discovered.  Social media has opened doors for me by connecting me to a variety of people I would not have met.  Here is just a brief list of the ways social media has impacted my academic career.

  • Media interviews – I was interviewed by Dr Pauline Chen through the New York Times who located me through – you guessed it Twitter!  She actually approached me for the interview by direct messaging me through Twitter.  She was following me and noticed my interests in handoffs on my Google profile which is linked to my Twitter account.  She was also very encouraging when I started the blog which was exciting!
  • Workshop presentations- I presented a workshop on social media in medical education (#SMIME as we like to call it), at 2 major medical meetings with 3 others (including @MotherInMed who encouraged me to start a blog and also is my copresenter at SGIM).  The idea was borne on Twitter…and the first time I actually met one of the workshop presenters (who I knew on Twitter) was at the workshop.
  • Acquired new skills  – My workshop co-presenter who I only knew through Twitter ended up being Carrie Saarinen, an instructional technologist (a very cool job and every school needs one!).  She is an amazing resource and taught me how to do a wiki.  After my period of ‘lurking’, I started my own ‘course’ wiki  dedicated to helping students do research and scholarly work which we are launching in a week.
  • Lecture invitations – Several of my lecture invitations come through social media.  Most notably, I was invited to speak for an AMSA webinar on handoffs and also speak to the Committee of Interns and Residents on teaching trainees about cost conscious medicine.  Both invitations started with a reference to finding me through Twitter or the blog.
  • Committee invitations – I am now on the SGIM communications task force as a result of my interest in social media.  Our most recent effort was a piece about ‘tweeting the meeting’ with @medrants and an older piece focused on the top Twitter Myths and Tips.
  • Grant opportunities – I recently submitted a grant with an organization that I learned of on Twitter – Initially, I had contacted Neel Shah from Costs of Care asking him if they had a curriculum on healthcare costs.  They did not, but were interested in writing a grant to develop a curriculum so they brought my team on board and we submitted together (fingers crossed).
  • Dissemination - One of the defining features of scholarship (the currency of promotion in academic medical centers) is that it has to be shared.   Well, social media is one of the most powerful ways to share information.   In a recent example, we entered a social media contest media video contest on the media sharing site Slideshare.  Using social media, we were able to obtain the most number of ‘shares’ on Facebook on Twitter which led to the most number of views and ultimately won ‘Best Professional Video.’  To date, this video, has received over 13,000 views, which I was able to highlight as a form of ‘dissemination’ in a recent meeting with our Chairman about medical education scholarship.    While digital scholarship is still under investigation with vocal critics and enthusiastic proponents debating the value of digital scholarship in academia, digital scholarship does appear to have a place for spreading nontraditional media that cannot be shared via peer review.

Part of being a good citizen on social media is giving back.  I try to give back when I can through helping anyone who contacts me for something specific – so I have read personal statements, reviewed websites, and offered input to others who are interested in my perspective on their work.  I can’t always keep up since I have a day job and alas, this is an extracurricular activity.  The good news is a tweet is only 140 characters  – so like the blue bird, I can keep it short but sweet.

–Vineet Arora, MD


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Physician Advocacy: Staying in Place and Telling Your Story

25 04 2011

This month, I have talked to two former trainees who are contemplating major changes in their career- -to leave medicine.  Both are in private practice and are frustrated by many different things that they see in their practice and are inspired to improve the practice of medicine.   While their desire to leave medicine is concerning enough and could be the subject of this entire post,  I was actually struck that both of them contacted me to find out how they could find out more about health policy and get involved.   One of them wondered if they needed to get a Public Policy Degree like I did.  The other one thought maybe she would have to move to DC to become more active in the health policy arena.   I also recall wondering how to get involved many years ago and thinking the same thing.  Fortunately, I was able to find a way to balance my interest in advocacy without giving up my job.  So, before I sent them packing to the Hill or back to school to read seminal texts in public policy and weekly economic homework assignments, I thought there are a few things they could do to engage while they stay in their job if they choose to.

  1. Learn from professional society advocacy experiences.  Some people will react and say that they have a negative opinion about “lobbying” or the special interests of their professional society.  My advice is that if you don’t have a basic terminology of healthcare reform and the healthcare system (i.e. SGR, ACO, etc.), then this is a great place to start -with other physicians who are also learning.
  2. Read the news foraciously – the best way to understand what is happening on the Hill is to keep up with the news.  While this may seem like a tall order, customizing Google news and setting alerts for healthcare reform or whatever it is that you are interested in can be helpful.  In addition, the iPad has amazing news applications that aggregate your favorite news sources and blogs (my personal favorites are PulseNews and FLUD, which even touts itself as the sexy news ecosystem).   My go to sources are still the New York Times Health Section and NPR Health, especially anything written by Julie Rovner.  Another excellent source for health policy which you can add to your reading list include The Healthcare Blog, Kaiser Health News, and the “Bob Blogs” as I refer to them (see the blogroll below) .  Even if you can’t read the article right away, you can often ‘favorite’ it to read later or send to InstaPaper.
  3. Engage in Social Media – Social media has become one of the best ways to stay on top of health policy news, especially thanks to KevinMD and his steady stream of diverse and eclectic contributors that include medical students, patients, physicians, and health policy wonks.  In addition to the usual news sources listed above, you can also keep on top of professional society news (see the medicalsocieties Twitter list) or use healthcare hashtags to stay abreast of the situation.   However, the key to effectively using social media is more than just staying informed, but also interacting and engaging and contributing to the dialogue.  So that brings us to the last way to get involved….
  4. Write – whether it be a comment on a newspaper article or blog post, a letter to the editor to your local newspaper, or a blog post about a specific health policy issue, writing is a great way to get the word out.  Policy narrative has become increasingly valued among physicians.   That is because there is nothing more compelling to the general public or legislators like a personal story. One of our own faculty has specialized in this area and teaches our students how to use policy narrative in their practice.

While some have a natural tendency to write, it may not be intuitive to others.  Fortunately, this year I was lucky enough to attend a session at the IHI meeting led by disciples of Marshall Ganz and dedicated on how to tell your story in a compelling way in 5 easy steps:

  1. Write the story of self (personal narrative)
  2. The story of us (to build a shared vision)
  3. The story of now (to highlight the urgency)
  4. Then present a choice (to raise the tension)
  5. End with asking for a commitment

One of our homework assignments was to practice so I actually chose to write a story to convincing others to come with me to DC for the American College of Physicians Leadership Day since I am leading this year’s Illinois delegation.  So here is my narrative for why you should join me:

When I first went to DC to lobby with ACP Leadership Day, I remember feeling awkward and relying on a medical student who showed me how to approach legislators.  The next year, I remember our student had graduated so I assumed the mentor position for the new people.  Two years later, I got a call that they needed a young physician to testify to Congress about the need for physician payment reform and I was thrilled to be able to do so on my 33rd birthday.  I know you have also wondered about how to get involved with healthcare policy but like me, you are very busy and overcommitted.  The key is that time is of the essence as the future of healthcare legislation is being debated in this election year and your input is critical to shaping the future.  So, I know that this May, you could stay at work and continue your everyday activities or you could decide to take action and go to Washington to witness and contribute to the political dialogue around healthcare.  So, I am asking you to commit to joining me as internists will come together to communicate the importance of affordable healthcare and preserving primary care for Americans. 

Look forward to hearing your stories too.

–Vineet Arora, MD MAPP


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#SGIM2011: Tweeting the Meeting: Why and How

20 01 2011

Bob Centor over at MedRants and I have written this piece for the 2011 SGIM meeting.  We hope that you will follow the tweets &  attend the meeting.

As you read this, you likely are wondering what is this tweeting stuff.  Maybe, like some you want to avoid twitter, because you do not want people to always know where you are and what you are doing.  Twitter is a convenient useful way to gather and share information.  We both find that Twitter helps us stay aware of both medicine and other fields.  Neither of us tweets (proper verb to refer to send out a message) our location or whether we are washing our hair.

We both use twitter to become aware of data.  Since twitter messages have a 140-character limit, you really do not have to waste time reading too many long messages. 

Today, for example, Bob Centor received several tweets that looked like this:

RT @FutureDocs RT @Atul_Gawande In NYer how to control health costs. 5% of pop accounts for 60% costs http://nyr.kr/eHW5BH

 Several points here:

  1. RT stands for retweet (a rebroadcast)
  2. @FutureDocs is Vinny Arora’s Tweeting name and @Atul_Gawande is obvious. 
  3. This tweet alerted me to a new Atul Gawande post in the New Yorker.
  4. http://nyr.kr/eHW5BH represents a shortened form of the actual url of the article.  Twitter users use shortening programs to save characters.

We subscribe to other medical tweets, some business tweets, some political tweets and even sports tweets.  We both tweet frequently to give a quick “heads-up” to an article that we read.

So we encourage you to sign up for Twitter (it is free).  You need not ever tweet; feel free to just follow tweeters who provide useful information.  In particular we hope you will use Twitter to keep up with #SGIM2010 prior to and during the meeting:

Why         

  • Engage with other SGIM members – One of the main reasons to belong to a professional society is to network with like-minded colleagues, form collaborations and friendships to support your personal and professional goals.  Using Twitter, you’ll be able to identify others who are tweeting the meeting and even connect to them in person at the SGIM “TweetUp”.  (A TweetUp is a meeting organized through Twitter).
  • Spread the word about generalist topics to other stakeholders- In addition to connecting with SGIM members, it is important to educate and raise awareness about issues relevant to general internists to the broader community, especially during this polarizing and volatile debates about healthcare and medical training.  Twitter provides a platform to immediately broadcast this message to other stakeholders that could include patients, public, policymakers and others? . 
  • Stay up to date about meeting news  – Wondering about the latest news about the abstract deadline or when the Meet-the-Professor session you wanted to go is?   Using Twitter, you can follow @societygim for updates so that you are up to speed on the latest information to have a positive meeting experience.
  • Participate virtually, even if you don’t attend- While we hope to see you at the meeting, we know your professional or personal obligations may prohibit you from coming to the meeting in person.  As opposed to staying in the dark and waiting to hear from your friends and colleagues how the meeting went, why not follow the Twitter stream and engage with attendees who are there in real-time?   

How

  • Get a Twitter account – This is the first step.  If you are not sure whether you want to do this, you may find it helpful to see these Twitter tips and myths that originally appeared in SGIM Forum. 
  • Follow SGIM users – Start following SGIMers on Twitter, try @societygim @medrants @futuredocs @jgimeditor @jgimeditor1 @bradcrotty @MotherInMed @ewidera @AlexSmithMD @Bob_Wachter as a few examples.
  • Follow #SGIM2011 Hashtag – By searching under this hashtag, you can find out who is tweeting about the SGIM annual meeting to find new followers.  By indexing your tweets with this hashtag, other SGIMers will be able to locate your tweets to learn what you are up to.  (A hashtag always starts with #.  For this meeting we have chosen #SGIM2011.  You can search Twitter at anytime to just read #SGIM2011 tweets.
  • Attend SGIM Social Media sessions – This year, the annual meeting offers several offerings which aim to educate SGIM members about social media including a pre-course for medical educators to learn about wikis, a workshop on how to use social media to advance your career, and a town hall to contribute to the future of the SGIM communications strategy.
  • Come to the SGIM tweetup – The first annual SGIM TweetUp will take place on – well, we will announce the location and time on Twitter..  Come meet the Tweeters you follow and discuss the meeting and social media.

We hope to see you at #SGIM2011.  Start following the Tweets, and even join in if you want.


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