Advocacy and Education in Social Media for Medical Students

I had a great discussion today as part of a social media faculty learning community (FLC) at my institution and thought it should be shared.  

As a group, we decided that what we would create is an elective for 4^th year medical students on using social media in medicine and medical education.  We are still finalizing the learning objectives, content and other components of what we want the students to learn.  We are aware that students are very savvy when it comes to social media, but know that there is more for them (and others, including us) to learn.  Including a section on professionalism is an obvious must.  In addition, we plan to have a reflection component where students must contribute their reflections in writing.

We had a phenomenal discussion today about including a section on advocacy.  We came to the conclusion that medical students should learn advocacy within the realm of social media.  An absolutely phenomenal example is what Dr.Bryan Vartabadian has accomplished with his blog and Twitter feed, which ultimately made its way to a post on the Forbes website.  This clearly demonstrates the impact that implementing one’s voice through social media channels can have.

What are your thoughts on medical education focusing on advocacy within social media?  In addition, we would love your opinions on what else we should include in this elective for students.  I look forward to any ideas.  Crowdsourcing at its best!

Faculty Learning in Social Media

It has been a great last week for me.  I have successfully returned from vacation and have come out of “email jail” relatively unscathed.  I begin a short two-week stint on the inpatient medicine service in a few weeks, and am using this week to get caught up on some important activities soon to come.

First, I am excited to be giving a Grand Rounds presentation at Columbus Regional Hospital in Columbus, IN, in a few days on social media in medicine and medical education.  It has provided me with an opportunity to reflect on all of the information I have collected on the topic over the past year or so.  We will be live tweeting the event at the hashtag #CRHGrandRounds, at 12 noon EST on 8/22/12, and I look forward to the discussions both in person and online from that.

Second, I am pleased to report that we are rolling out a Faculty Learning Community (FLC) in Social Media for IUSM faculty members.  I had the privilege of belonging to a similar FLC in the use of iPads in medical education for the past two years, and it was widely successful.  With this new project in Social Media just starting, the hope is to learn from others, and move forward scholarship with regards to using social media within medicine and medical education.  We are starting it off with a presentation on how to use Twitter in medicine, followed by applications from faculty members who want to join this FLC, starting the actual group out in October.  I am extremely honored to be leading this FLC, and hope that we can determine some real areas for research around social media and follow through on that research in the coming year.  For example, how do we best teach students and trainees about using social media without compromising professionalism?  How can physician use of social media impact direct patient care in a positive manner?

For my fellow faculty at the IUSM: please send in an application if you are interested in how social media impacts your teaching and learning!  I am curious for those faculty out there at other institutions: have you done a similar thing to these learning communities, and what were your successes and failures?  What worked well and what didn’t work so well?  Please comment so others may learn from what you have accomplished.