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How a thriving social media presence can benefit radiology departments

by John W. Mitchell, Senior Correspondent | November 24, 2017
From the November 2017 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine


HCB News: How can social media platforms make radiologists’ and referring physicians' lives easier?
AT: It is hard to say there is a true return on investment. I think where it really helps is when you go to meetings like RSNA and find a way to fit into the meeting, to get the commentary on what you are listening to, what you are seeing. It’s also a place to learn very quickly and to learn about brand new things very quickly.

You’ll often learn about breaking news through Twitter or on another social channel, and the same works in medical education, using medical education very loosely. There are millions of articles published every year in scientific journals. To find any one article is difficult unless you’re looking for it. Social media at least is another way to get that article out there in another way that someone may find it and be interested. So, your followers may be able to see that link, and that triggers something they wouldn’t have actively sought out. People are learning because of that.

At conferences, we’re able to share slides from our presentation, and share figures and information from our posters, so that’s another way to get that educational content out. At RSNA, for example, I may have a couple hundred people in the room listening to me. But through social media, I may be able to get a couple thousand or more impressions, people seeing the information that we’re tweeting out. So, you can distill the talk at RSNA down to a couple of slides and get the major teaching points to a larger number of people.

HCB News: Are you finding social media is useful in discussing patient cases?
AT: Yes. We have a case of the day that we discuss on Instagram and on Figure 1. We do a lot to protect the privacy of patients. But we use those cases to direct teaching points related to a specific case. When we’re doing that we talk about the disease, not about the patient. If it's a tumor, for example, we talk about the imaging findings of the tumor or things that predispose a patient to get that type of tumor. But I don’t talk about the specific treatment that patient got or that patient’s specific history

HCB News: How can social media improve patient care?
AT: I think it’s about education and awareness. We have examples where trainees have told us that they learned about a disease process and then treated it based on cases we’ve shared.

For example, if a child or anyone swallows a button battery like you find in a watch, that can really damage your esophagus or your food pipe, and it can do so very quickly. So, it’s important for a radiologist to recognize what those batteries look like compared to, say, a coin.

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