#ITeachMedicine

I have mentioned for several years now how social media has been able to impact how I teach, and how others learn in medicine.  It has been an incredible journey to see, as I have met many folks virtually whom I would otherwise never meet.

It is also amazing how quickly information can be spread via social media.  Sometimes, this can be bad, but other times, it can be very good.  A great example of advocacy within medicine began earlier this month, with a tweet from a surgeon-in-training, Dr. Heather Logghe (@LoggheMD).  A blog which began this campaign describes early successes.  This campaign continues to grow, and has amassed an incredible number of tweets and impressions.  It is so refreshing to see stereotypes broken down, and to see the human side behind these incredible physicians.  I've never met Heather, but as a residency program director, I am impressed!

I got to thinking: the #meded hashtag (for medical education) has really taken off over the past few years due to my colleague, Dr. Ryan Madanick from the University of North Carolina, and includes a weekly tweetchat and many other tweets at any time.  #meded has even been described in the peer-reviewed literature (here and here).  How about highlighting some of the amazing medical educators out there who enjoy teaching medicine (at any level)?

So here goes: #ITeachMedicine is starting today with this blog.  Please distribute to all of those dedicated teachers who make medicine and the teaching of and within it a wonderful profession! I am a #meded ‘er, and #ITeachMedicine !!