[MUSIC]
This is EM Pulse with your hosts, Sarah Medeiros and
Julia Magaña, social media, wonderful and terrifying.
[MUSIC]
>> Welcome back to EM Pulse.
>> We're gonna talk about social media's role in medicine.
>> Right, and we've been wanting to talk about this for a while.
The last time was with Dr. Megan Ranney,
and that was in our episode,
"With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility"
in April of 2019.
But this is such an evolving topic,
and so much has changed.
- I totally agree,
and I would argue things continue to evolve.
So, okay, we are recording this,
what, today is September 8th, 2023.
So this is our best take on social media
at this moment in time,
but hey guys, it may change by the time
this is even published.
Yeah, and so to get into this, we've invited Lauren Suedkamp.
Now, I know Lauren back from when she was the social media
director at UC Davis Health, but she is now the vice president
at a digital health public affairs agency.
Welcome, Lauren.
Thanks, guys.
Happy to be here.
Yeah, this is exciting because Lauren
was here at the inception of EM Pulse.
And now here she is as our expert on this podcast.
So it's pretty cool.
Absolutely.
She helped us so much along the way, too.
So thank you for all of that, Lauren.
I know what a full circle moment, so exciting.
- Okay, Lauren, we need to start off
by defining social media for this conversation.
I know there's lots of definitions,
but what are we talking about when we say social media today?
- So I think when we talk about social media today,
we're really talking about platforms
that allow you to be interactive with other people.
And so it's kind of where you see
those two-way conversations happening.
You think about your traditional, like Facebook,
Instagram, Twitter, X, whatever it's called today.
(laughing)
On September 8th, it's called X, formerly known as Twitter.
It could be something completely different tomorrow,
but today you'll hear me probably go back and forth
between calling it X and Twitter, old habits die hard.
We also think about it in terms of TikTok.
Can't have a conversation about social media
without TikTok.
And I'd also say that there's some others
that have really emerged as kind of contenders,
quote unquote, that we may not have traditionally
a lot of us contenders. So YouTube is one, especially with the release of YouTube Shorts.
And then the other place that you're kind of seeing this like intersection of is it
social media or is it the internet is Reddit. Okay, so let's talk about some of those platforms.
What are the top platforms that healthcare providers use? Yeah, so I think there's kind
of two categories that that would fall in. I think one is the category of a healthcare
provider who's looking to maybe build their business quote unquote. And if they're doing
that, they're probably looking more on a platform like Facebook, where you can create like a page
about their organization or, you know, even which might be like taboo, but their own profile of like
where they work and to get reviews and all that jazz. I think the other bucket here is the physician
who wants to promote themselves, either as like a thought leader or an educator or someone
with something to say on a topic, on multiple topics.
And so when we look at that second category, I think the big places that you see people
at least today are on Instagram and on TikTok.
Now you might see them other places, but if they're showing up other places, I think about
like Reddit doing an AMA, they're likely either promoted by the institution that they're working
for, or they're tied to some organization that's part of like a bigger push for a topic.
But in terms of them being an individual, I'd say it's really Instagram and TikTok,
which is a huge change from even like a year ago when it would have been X slash Twitter.
Why do you think those particular platforms are so popular?
I think they're so popular because they're so engaging.
And I think for a lot of people,
and at least the physicians that I know,
I have a really good friend who is a physician
in Wisconsin, watched her go through residency
and was along for the whole journey.
And knowing you two as well,
I think a lot of physicians go into medicine
and they go through such strict schooling
and their life is about becoming a doctor
and whatever that looks like for them.
And along the way, a lot of them might lose
that kind of creative outlet because they don't have time.
Your life is about saving people
and that's like the most important.
And then when you get on the other end of that,
they're suddenly like,
oh, I'm really passionate about this thing.
Or I really want to show people how to do this.
Or I have something to say about this topic.
We saw a lot of that with COVID and vaccines.
And so I think that people like Instagram and TikTok
because they're quick, they're easy,
especially I'm gonna be really like general here,
but if you're like under 30, it's really easy to go on
and like edit videos, you've grown up doing it.
And so those platforms are just so accessible
to be what I like to call quick and dirty and get out there.
And so you can get on, it takes nothing more than a phone
and a point of view and boom, you're out there.
And I think that it's a really great way
that people have seen to kind of A,
release some of that creative energy
And B, be able to talk about something they're passionate about without feelings,
maybe some of the constraints that they've felt throughout their schooling.
>> That's a really great summary.
Can I ask you to summarize that dumpster fire of Elon Musk and
Twitter and evolution into X?
For those that may not have followed it in the news,
can you just summarize what happened?
>> Basically, what he did is he just dropped a bomb and destroyed a great platform.
That would be my general summary. But I would say in general what happened is when he bought Twitter,
so he basically took over the majority ownership, he kind of started to make sweeping changes.
A lot of people talk about it in terms of he was trying to create it into a profitable business,
because I don't think a lot of people knew that up to that point, like Twitter
wasn't as profitable as some of the other places. That's not to say it was posting, you know,
gigantic losses and was always on the brink of collapse, but it also wasn't the big places where
you saw a lot of ad spends like on meta or even on TikTok. And so when he bought it, I think he
came in and I'm giving him way too much credit, but he came in with the idea of turning it more
into a business. But along the way, he destroyed everything that made it what it was. In terms of
the verification processes, having to buy your blue checks, what is that? That means that like
person off the street could do it versus a big corporation. The fact that you could impersonate
other accounts, the whole Eli Lilly Insolins issue, popped up. And in those moments, it destroyed any
of the brand and kind of personal safety that had existed on Twitter before that really allowed it
to still be a free speech kind of platform. But you were limited in terms of some of the hate speech
that was out there. And when he came in, it blew the whole thing up and it left people really
vulnerable to things that they weren't vulnerable to before.
Tell us about the Eli Lilly insulin incident.
So what happened with Eli Lilly, which was really terrifying, not necessarily for physicians,
but I think it's an example of the dangers that could exist on Twitter, is that when
some of the verification processes were removed and some of the checks that were in place
to ensure that, you know, accounts and people were who they said they were to the best of
the ability obviously. Someone created a fake Eli Lilly account and if you don't
know Eli Lilly is one of the biggest producers of insulin and they posted
that insulin was now free for everybody and it was horrific is the best way to
put it. Like it's played with Eli Lilly's stock immediately it was a very like
major like crisis there but what I think is the most important thing at least
from the work that I do is it pulled back the curtain that you were like no longer safe on Twitter.
That there was always kind of this feeling, especially if you were verified, that it meant
something to be verified. And it meant that it was really clear who was who, especially if you were
such a public person, persona, company, whatever. And when that happened, it, I like shattered it.
And it made it so like what is real because a bunch of news outlets picked it up because it looked
real. And that I think just underscores kind of how if you're looking to be on social media and if
you're looking to kind of start to try to be what we can call like a public persona, always
understanding the risks that you're taking along the lines and knowing like what you're getting
into. So if you're getting into a platform like Twitter that it's kind of the wild, wild west still
And it wasn't for a long time.
And then these things happened and Elan's take over.
And again, it inherently changed the platform
from what it was where I think it was originally
one of the most heavily like HCP platform out there.
And now it still is still being used
by like medical conferences and a lot of kind of that
in the moment conversation is happening.
But even then it's not happening as much as it was.
- Yeah, and that's one of the things
that I really loved about Twitter
was that conversation with other physicians
and especially the emergency medicine community
was huge on Twitter.
So it feels to me like a lot of the physician community
has left Twitter.
Is that true by the numbers?
Do we have data that says that?
- I haven't seen really clear numbers of data around that
just because sometimes people don't identify
as who they are when they jump to other platforms.
But what I can say is that especially when it has come
to doing things like ad targeting
and putting content out there for people to see,
especially around conferences where HCPs will be attending,
there's been a major shift to LinkedIn.
And the reason that is,
is because while there are physician-specific platforms
out there, like Doximity and Sermo,
those are closed platforms
that only physicians have access to,
like outside people and companies can place advertisements,
but only physicians are part of those.
LinkedIn has now become the natural place
for kind of that professional, quote unquote,
interactions that you saw a lot on Twitter. And so you saw a lot more kind of physicians putting
themselves out there writing thought leadership. So of course, it had to now be longer than 280
characters. But from what I know, a lot of physicians have something to say about things
and need more than 280 characters to really make a strong point. And I say that in like the nicest
way possible because you have research and data and like all this backup. And I think LinkedIn has
really become that place where physicians are engaging more.
And it's less in the traditional sense that we think about
LinkedIn for the lay person. They're not necessarily on
there looking for jobs. They're on there to kind of have those
professional connections with each other with organizations
and with others that leaders in the spaces that they care about.
Interesting. Are there any other platforms that have shown
themselves to be a meaningful competitor to x like threads or
you know, you mentioned Doximetry and Sermo. Is there anything else that has kind of
filled that space about micro blogging and sharing and having that conversation?
Well, that's a great question. So I think that Doximetry and Sermo to the outside person are
always going to be a mystery, just because unless you can talk to directly physicians who use it,
it's hard to know from an outside perspective, like what's going on there, what kind of
conversations are happening as it is such a closed platform. Now, when you use the word meaningful,
that's not necessarily how I would describe threads at this exact moment. I think it's
an attempt at a competitor, but I think it's hard when it's tied to Instagram and it's like
cross promoting. And there just isn't from what I've seen like the same level of buy-in. There was
There was a ton of buy-in when it launched.
When it launched, everybody was like,
"Look at threads, I'm gonna join."
And then you saw within the first two weeks
a massive drop-off of engaged users.
And so what that means is that a bunch of people
went in, activated their profiles,
and maybe did that first, like,
"Hey, I'm here," kind of post,
and then never did anything else.
And there's limitations there.
The big difference, at least from the last time
I looked at threads, is that it was really hard
to be searchable by topic.
So you could use a hashtag, but like,
didn't take you anywhere, nor could you click on it.
And so that's, I think the biggest downside to threads
could change again in a month
that that functionality is there.
And the other one that you have heard people talk about
a little bit is a platform called Mastodon.
Funny name, of course, but Mastodon is kind of,
I like to describe it as like the IT solution to Twitter.
And the reason I say that is because
it's an open source social media platform,
which means that people can kind of create their own areas
and groups within the source code.
And there are layers to accessibility to the platform.
So you have to apply to kind of the branch
that you want to join.
And like once you're in, you're in,
but then you still have to like apply
to be part of other Mastodon communities.
So I don't think it's been adopted as much.
I also don't think a lot of people know about it.
And if you do know about it, you've known about it for kind of specific reasons,
not necessarily because Twitter disappeared or changed.
And like you were looking for something else.
Tell me a little bit more about how people are using Reddit.
Oh, great question.
So Reddit has been around for a long time.
It's the quintessential front page of the Internet, as they like to call themselves.
But people are using Reddit to have.
I think a lot of these micro conversations.
And so they're having them in subreddits,
and subreddits exist amongst bigger Reddit channels.
And so if you don't know how Reddit works,
Reddit has pages.
And in those pages, they can be broken down
into smaller subreddits.
So you can think about it as emergency medicine
is a Reddit page.
And on emergency medicine, you could then
create subreddits to be like pediatrics, or ultrasound,
or radiology or even like critical care.
So like first response, that kind of thing.
And so all of these kinds of conversations
can happen on these pages.
And I think people are really using them to ask questions,
to talk through situations.
I've seen a lot of people good on there and be like,
I had this thing happen, like this is what I did,
what would you have done?
And you see people having those conversations
or you see the general person asking,
my kid has been spiking a fever of 104
for the last three days, do I go to the doctor?
And it's interesting in the responses
because you might see a fellow parent who's just like,
no, I gave my kid Tylenol and they were great.
And then you see an NP pop on there who's like,
you should probably call the nurse advice line.
Or you see those people pop up,
but they're self-identifying.
And I think that's the difference with Reddit
is you're about as anonymous as you can get on Reddit
in terms of like your username
can be whatever you want it to be.
It has nothing to do with you.
And even when you sign up for an account,
it's not like on the other platforms
where you choose like your job or things like that.
You don't have to have any of that.
I think the basics that you have to have
is a username and your location.
So people are self identifying
and I think that's the interesting part.
- I think that's the scary part to me,
even more so like we talked about with the verification
on Twitter that feels like even more so licensed to post false information and not sure who
to actually rely upon there.
I'd say just to that point, though, real fast, that one of the things with Reddit that I
think is really interesting is that there is an inherent level of trust.
So when people put things out there and they ask a question, I think from what I've seen
as a user and then also from doing some research on there into certain type topics.
I think there's this inherent level of like when you ask a question or bring up a topic,
you know that you're going to get the spectrum of things, but you also believe that by someone
taking the time to get in there and write a real comment, that they're who they say
they're going to be.
I like to think about engagements in tiers.
And so like a tier one engagement, in my opinion, is a like or a click to like open up the rest
of something that's written that's maybe not above the like read more.
A tier two is when you kind of get into the I'm going to share this with someone.
It might be a comment of like, this is great, like a small comment.
But a tier three, to me, is when someone leaves a real comment, when they actually go in there
and they say something more than a few words.
That's, I think, the tier that you see a lot more on Reddit,
and that's where I think people
kind of believe in the credibility.
So while it still is anonymous,
it's really the fact that someone's taking the time
to take more than two seconds to do an action
that underscores some credibility.
I mean, that's my opinion,
but I think that that's,
from what I've seen, held pretty true.
- Hmm, interesting way to think about it.
What about some of the visual platforms?
You mentioned Instagram and TikTok.
What are some successful ways that healthcare workers leverage these visual platforms?
So I think there's a few ways.
I think one is having a point of view and your point of view can be as simple as I'm a
pediatric physician here.
Or I'm an emergency medicine doctor here.
And I think the here part is really important.
And I bring that up because with the recent hurricane that happened in Florida, there is
a physician whose name is escaping me. But she has been on there on Instagram and I think she's on
TikTok too. A lot of people are now doing this thing where they're like on both platforms and
reposting both content just without like the little TikTok logo. So but anyway she's on there,
she lives in Florida, she's right on the path of the hurricane and she's already established herself
as a pediatric physician and oftentimes she comes on there and does kind of like myths and facts.
so she'll do the splicing where like she's talking in front of a video of someone else sharing
something and saying whether it's true or not. She does a lot of general kind of pediatric things,
but when the hurricane was coming she started showing glimpses inside her hospital.
So it was, "This is how we're prepping for the hurricane. This is where I'm staying.
This is what my family's doing since I'm here." But I thought that was really interesting because
I was like, "Oh, so they have this place for their their doctors and this is how they're prepping
and it really just underscored her
as a continuing authority of care.
'Cause she's giving you that behind the scenes.
She's showing you that like,
her family's being taken care of,
but she's here to take care of people
and like this is her commitment
and she knew as part of her commitment
like this is what she's doing.
And I thought that was really interesting
because I thought that was a little different
than what some of her other content had been.
So I share that example
because I do think that's where the there is important.
And I think it's especially important to show
if you feel comfortable enough to share
not necessarily the hospital that you work at
or the clinic that you work at,
but at least the state that you're in
because that might help give people some context
to what you're talking about,
especially in a day and age when healthcare
is being decided a lot of times in politics
and not in one-on-one conversations
between a patient and their doctor.
- So we've talked about a lot of these sort of success stories
of how we can successfully use social media.
But what are some of the concerns or pitfalls
that emergency physicians should be aware of
when they're utilizing these platforms professionally?
- So the first and biggest one
that I feel like is common sense, but is also not, is HIPAA.
And HIPAA consists not only of patient and patient details
and anything that's identifying factors
when you're speaking, but it's also what's behind you.
what's on your table, what's something
that someone can zoom in.
And I think that that was always the number one thing.
Whenever I talk to anybody in the medical field
about wanting to be on social media,
it's to be very, very aware and up to date on HIPAA.
And to always think before you click publish.
So you might think that the story that you have told
about this case that you had was really interesting
and such a great learnable experience.
And oh my gosh, I can't wait to share it.
But you accidentally mentioned that the patient had red hair
and therefore they needed a higher dose of pain medicine.
I know that's like a may or may not be a myth,
but I'm just going with it.
(laughing)
You had to give them a higher dose of pain medicine
in order to treat, I don't know,
the dislocated shoulder that they had.
Again, I'm not a medical professional,
this is just where I'm going.
And you're like, what was really cool about this is XYZ.
And you're like, I'm gonna click publish
because I think other people might need to learn about this.
Well, you just identified that this person had red hair,
that this was the condition that they came in on.
And are you publishing it the same day
that you did this treatment
or are you publishing it like three months after?
Now, they're still gray there.
I'm not saying to do that,
but it's like those small things,
I think are what people sometimes forget
when they're in the moment
and they're wanting to just get out
what this really cool thing was.
I think that that's always a big pitfall for people
because I would hate to have had something happen to me
and the doctor who treated me without my permission,
I found on social media, like I have found other doctors
and suddenly I'm hearing them tell my story
and they never like talk to me about it.
And I knew it was me.
And if I know it's me, someone else might know it's me
if they're close to me.
- Yeah, that's a good principle,
like making sure that the patient
couldn't even identify themselves with inside of the information that you're sharing would
be a good general rule. But HIPAA definitely scares me. Also, you know, misinformation
on social media scares me and I want to be as precise as I can. That's really important
to me. How can I ensure that I'm not inadvertently spreading false or misleading content on social
media?
This feels like a conversation back in late 2020
and 2021 related to COVID,
which was just such a fascinating case study
and misinformation for the general public,
but also in terms of medicine.
I think what happens with misinformation
is always knowing what you're talking about
in terms of where it's coming from.
So identifying off the bat,
is this your personal opinion
or is this your educated opinion?
Now the lines could be gray there,
but that's where it comes up with data and facts
and being able to speak to things that are reputable.
And it's okay to not always have that backup
if you have an opinion on something.
But if you have that opinion, you also have to know
that if you're sharing something that is misinformation
or is your own personal opinion not based
in facts and studies, that you'll lead with that.
I think what happened a lot is a lot of doctors
were either quoting things, and again,
I'm talking about around COVID and vaccines,
but they were quoting things that were coming out
as it was happening, not necessarily after
the long-term studies that are really effective.
And I know that during that time period,
we didn't have the luxury of time,
and a lot of it then came down to physicians
putting their own personal stance on what was happening
and not realizing, to your point at the beginning,
Sarah, you have power.
People are looking to you as an expert.
They come to you for care.
And so regardless of whether they're your patient or not,
your words hold weight.
And so there is this responsibility,
whether you like it or not,
that people are gonna take what you say
and really consider it more highly
or better than their friend,
or maybe even a family member or someone they trust
because they trust you.
and they trust that you're supposed to have
their best interest at hand.
And so misinformation is like a poison,
but what's challenging with it
is so much of it is rooted in the personal.
And so that's where I think it really behooves people
to identify like, this is my personal opinion,
based on what I've read, this is what I think,
and not doing a lot of generalizations,
which is a lot of, I think, what we saw
in that heavy time period.
I think another thing that really scares me on social media or maybe not scares me but
like stresses me out is the concept of trolls.
Somebody coming on and trolling what I'm saying.
What is your best tip for dealing with trolls?
Blocking and reporting.
So I'm a firm believer that social media can be both the best and the worst thing for mental
health.
It can be the best thing because it ties you to this wealth of information that we never
had before in such a beautiful community of people across the world with diverse perspectives
and thoughts and ways of life that you may never be exposed to, regardless of where you
live. And that knowledge sharing and exposure is, I think, one of the most powerful things
to really underscore the fact that, like, we're all in this together and we're all one
big giant community. On the flip side of that, I think social media can also bring out the
the worst of what we like to call keyboard warriors.
So people who sit behind their keyboard
and, you know, tear people down
and say things that you would literally never say
to someone's face, sitting across from them.
And if you were, chances are that person would want nothing
to do with you in the future.
So I always just remind people that protecting your space
and protecting your energy is the best thing you can do
in those types of situations.
It's the block button, it's reporting,
it's limiting your comments.
I've seen people do that on Instagram
when they're talking about certain things
because they just don't wanna deal with people
who are searching hashtags
just to leave negativity all over the place.
And so I think while that is a huge concern,
there are now things in place to one,
help you physically protect your energy and your space.
And to just have a good reminder to yourself
that you're choosing to do this.
And if this choice is no longer serving you
to be out there,
if you feel like all you're getting is not what you want back,
take a break, take a moment,
maybe rethink what you're saying.
And that's not to say what you're doing
isn't valuable or important,
but maybe that's your moment to step back
and think about, is this really how I wanna do this?
Is there other avenues that I could take
or going to a trusted colleague or friend
being like, "Okay, this is all that I'm getting. It seems to be these people coming at me saying
this rhetoric over and over again. I think they're crazy. What do you think?" Because sometimes we
get in our own mind too that what we have to say and what we have to share is 100% correct,
and all the right things and the way that we're delivering it is so great.
Sometimes it could just be in the delivery that people are missing the point.
So let's shift a little bit.
Let's say that I want to establish myself on social media
and I haven't done that much
or maybe I've pulled back for a while.
What advice do you have for somebody to kind of get started
and get themselves out there
with a professional presence on social media?
- Yeah, I love this question
because I'm all about empowering people to like take the leap
and you know, be themselves.
And that would be my number one piece of advice.
Be yourself.
People want to see people.
They want to see you after a shift, before a shift.
I would say in the middle of your shift,
but you know, caveats with that,
as we all probably know if we're listening to this,
if you're in the medical field,
and have a point of view.
And like I kind of mentioned or alluded to earlier,
your point of view can be as simple as,
I'm a pediatric emergency medicine physician.
And what you're doing is you're setting yourself up
for people to come find you and be like, okay, cool.
So if I come to this person's page,
I'm probably gonna see them talking about
caring for children, caring for children
in trauma situations, having advice on things
that they might be seeing coming up in the emergency room.
So like, do I go to the emergency room for a fever or not?
Or when's the best time to call 911 for your kid
versus like showing up and waiting?
You know, they might look for topics like that.
And if you're not wanting to delve into some of those
types of things, they might also then be looking for you
like, how do you take care of yourself outside of your shifts?
What self-care and showing like, get ready with me routines
is like the trend right now.
And so I'm not saying that's necessarily
what I think is the best use of someone's time
to do all the time, but they might see that from you
if you're just identifying yourself as that.
Like, what do you do to get ready for a 12-hour shift?
What do you look like after a 12-hour shift?
Because to me, from the doctors that I've interacted with,
that is the moment that I'd rather see
than they get ready with me.
'Cause that's like the real,
that's like you've just been face to face with humanity
for 12 hours.
And I think that that human aspect
from my own personal opinion is something that
I think is still an untapped field.
And that's not to say it's all doom and gloom
'cause it's not.
There's some beautiful, wonderful, miraculous things
that happen.
but I think that a lot of people just view it
as like advice giving and not what it actually looks like
to do the job.
So that all circles back to my second thing
about like have a point of view.
So establish who you are and do your best
to stay true to that as specific or as broad
as you wanna be.
- And you've talked about this a little bit
but what would be your key platforms to start with?
- What you're comfortable with is the first.
So if you are like, I take photos and I'm great at photos
and like that's my jam
and I write these beautiful captions,
Instagram is your best friend.
If you wanna dabble in video,
I'd say TikTok or Instagram.
Now, both take a little bit of a learning curve
and that shouldn't be a reason not to do it.
There's so many people now who have like
thousands of followers who if you scroll back
through their page, their first videos
are literally like terrible transitions
and weird looking text on screen,
you know, all that jazz.
You can sometimes not hear them or the music's weird.
And that's the thing, like it's meant to be fun.
It's meant to be something that you try.
And so that's where I think you kind of choose
what medium speaks to you and know that you can evolve
just like social media has evolved.
- And I think that takes us to the next question
is for those who are already established
on one or two platforms, what is your advice to them
for expanding their online presence?
Research, do your research.
What are you hashtagging?
How are people finding you?
Where are they finding you?
Depending on your level of engagement on these platforms.
And by that, I mean like if you do any like paid promotions
or I think TikTok might give a little bit better metrics
than Instagram might give in that aspect,
but look at who's following you.
Look at where they come from.
Look at what they look like.
And target that audience.
It takes some time and care and cultivation.
It's one thing when people always talk about like,
"Oh, I went viral and that's how I got all these followers."
Well, did you?
Or did you go viral for like one post
and when people went to your page,
they saw that you had a point of view
that they wanted to keep following.
And that I think is huge.
And that's not again to say like,
I think back to the days when Instagram first launched
and like you looked at people's pages
that were perfectly curated and like aesthetically pleasing.
Like I think that matters a little more now
just in terms of like wanting people to know
like what you're talking about to click on a video.
But I think it's less about that and more about like
if this is something that's popping up in there
like for you page, what's gonna keep them on your page?
And then what's gonna encourage them to click follow.
And if you're not seeing those click throughs to follows,
start to think about why,
are there different hashtags you could be using?
Are there promotions that you could do
in terms of like what you talk about.
I'm not saying giveaways, don't do giveaway loops,
please, please, please.
But are there things that you could promote
that connect to someone else?
Work with your organization.
If you really have a point of view
and you think you're great on camera,
which you probably are if you have a following,
how can you then tap into someone else
who has a following as well
that might be the type of people you want to follow you?
- I like that tip.
- So Lauren, what do you think the future holds
in terms of social media in the healthcare space?
- That is a big question.
On the one hand, change.
I think it's going to constantly be changing.
I think with AI and I think with these things that are,
I think I keep saying this, but like wonderful
and terrifying all at the same time,
that's how I think of AI right now,
it's gonna constantly be changing.
But I think the one thing in the future
that holds true to today is no matter how much things change,
people want to see people.
And so I think the future still is building that connection.
I think you're going to see some platforms come and go.
I think you're going to see platforms change.
Like I don't think meta will be what it is today, a year from now,
five years from now.
But I think that it's not going away.
And so I think the other piece of that
is that for physicians as they're
moving through their career and thinking about social media and whether they want to use
it or not, I think it's always going to be there.
And I think that it's just going to be determining your level of comfort, your level of engagement,
and your buy-in to participate and what that looks like.
Because I think that there's levels of that, and I think that those are always something
that's going to be there, and so you can't pretend that it doesn't exist.
But the more that you can embrace it in the way that you feel the most empowered by it,
the better you're going to be in the long run.
All right.
So if there was one takeaway, one key point that you would like everybody to know here
about social media, what would that be?
I'm going to throw it back to the original podcast that you did and reiterate the with
a great power comes great responsibility.
And I think that that is the perfect summation of this, because as we know, people are looking
to social media platforms more than they're looking to Google now.
People are looking to people as experts, whether they're supported as that or not, in other
realms that we have traditionally thought news media, for example, like if someone's
quoted in the newspaper, they've typically been viewed as an expert.
I think that that has changed.
And so I just think that you should know that as a physician, as that person, or as a medical
professional with those extra letters at the end of your name, people look to you with
certain authority. And that is so wonderful. And I think it's so well deserved and so well earned.
But know that your words have power and your words carry weight. And so when you opt into a
more public or putting yourself out there type of persona, know that you have the power to influence.
And that's huge. Thank you, Lauren. This has been eye opening. And it's so nice to talk with you
again because I miss our chats where I would learn things from you all the time.
So I love doing this again.
And I have now learned that I need to get on Reddit because I don't think I use that
as much as I should.
So I'm going to get on there and start looking for some emergency medicine threads.
That's an interesting takeaway.
I also can't wait to see what happens next or maybe I can.
Whatever it is, it's going to be interesting.
And so guys, this is it for social media and emergency medicine. Thanks, Lauren, for your
time.
Of course, thanks for having me.
And speaking of social media, you can find us on social media @EMPulsePodcast. And it
helps us so much if you subscribe and rate the podcast on Apple Podcasts. And if you
have time, we would love it if you left us a review.
And thanks to the UC Davis Emergency Department for using social media to educate.
And thanks to OM Productions for helping us with our own social media accounts.
See y'all next time.
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