How to use social media in clinical practice keeping up with research

Using social media in clinical practice covers a big spectrum, from attacting certain clients (marketing) to getting the message out about what you do (content distribution) to keeping up to date with what is happening in your area.  The previous post focused on how to use social media in practice to get your professional profile online, this post focuses on how to keep up to date.

when to use social media How to use social media in clinical practice keeping up with research

Credit: www.CoxandForkum.com

Keeping up with research using social media

There are many sites which put out new research and information on a regular basis, for example ‘Neuroscience and pain science for manual physical therapists’[1], which is run by a Canadian physiotherapist Diane Jacobs, or ‘Body in Mind’[2], which is run by a clinical science research team at Neuroscience Research Australia. Other sites, such as Research Blogging[3] or Science blogs[4] do the aggregating and sifting of other sites for you and you choose the topics in which you are interested. Public Facebook pages can be read without joining Facebook and one can consider such sites as a bit like a public newspaper, only free.

If you want to tap into social media networks with your own site, work out who your site is for – clinicians, researchers, Joe public – and then tap into the relevant social networks. in this case the primary goal might be dissemination of information. Again, virtual networks eventually convert to physical networks as people communicate and spread the word. Or, as Harvard Professor Nicholas Christakis said:

‘Our experience of the world depends on the architecture of the ties around us, it depends on the actual structure of the networks in which we are residing and on all the kinds of things that ripple and flow through the network.’[5].

References

[1] http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/Neuroscience-and-Pain-Science-for-Manual-Physical-Therapists/114879238784
[2] http://bodyinmind.com.au
[3] http://researchblogging.org
[4] http://scienceblogs.com
[5] http://heidiallen.id.au/study-of-the-influence-of-social-networks-from-a-health-perspective/

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10 Responses to “How to use social media in clinical practice keeping up with research”

  1. Guido Van Ryssegem June 17, 2010 at 2:30 pm #

    Also, check out http://www.facebook.com/kineticintegrations?ref=ts for review on literature pertaining Movement Dysfunctions and more.
    Guido

    [Reply]

  2. Neel June 17, 2010 at 2:54 pm #

    Also, Check http://www.twitter.com/iraupdates for twitter account of Indian Rheumatology Association

    [Reply]

  3. Devdeep Ahuja June 17, 2010 at 6:04 pm #

    Well written article, but then social networking for professionals has its own sets of negatives as well…

    This article ion Physioguru Blog summarises the pro’s and con’s of social networking for physiotherapists.

    http://physioguru.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=64:social-networking-for-physiotherapists-the-pros-and-cons&catid=87:blog&Itemid=94

    [Reply]

    Heidi Allen Reply:

    Yes there can be negatives using social networking sites – especially if you confuse your personal with your professional sites which is what the article you mention is alluding to. Used professionally, social networking can become an information stream – for getting up to date information to putting out the information you want to.

    [Reply]

  4. Anne Marie Cunningham June 29, 2010 at 12:35 am #

    Me again!
    Keeping up to date….? I’ve still not figured out who to do it comepletely yet but some tips.
    1.Don’t sign up to the RSS feeds of blogs unless you would read the journal anyway. They will swamp any feed reader.
    2.Do subscribe to Richard Lehman’s journal watch blog. http://www.cebm.net/index.aspx?o=2320 He covers NEJM, BMJ, JAMA and the Lancet with wit and intelligence.
    3. After that it gets hard. Do I want to subscribe to the RSS feed of the fromtpage of the NICE site? No, I’d like to subscribe to any new guidance relevant to primart care. Is that possible? Umm….no.Although I have just been proactive and tweeted them to ask for something like this to be set up.
    4. Oh, and subscribe to RSS feed of Behind the Headlines.
    http://www.nhs.uk/News/Pages/NewsIndex.aspx

    Perhaps I should do a post like this myself!

    AM

    So, that isn’t altogether very helpful.

    [Reply]

    Heidi Allen Reply:

    Thanks Anne Marie – it’s VERY helpful. I didn’t know about Richard Lehman’s journal watch blog which is indeed excellent. I don’t know of any other site that does what he does. We have something like NHS Behind the Headlines with our 6minutes.com.au – ‘interesting stuff for doctors’ so the focus is a bit different. We don’t have anything like NHS choices in Australia – each state is somewhat different in their health systems and resources – what the NHS has become is something for us to aspire to over here.
    YES PLEASE – do write a post like this, it would be good to get a discussion going as to what social medicine means for different groups and the resources available.

    [Reply]

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