MedX | Ed Reflections

I am a medical educator and have been privileged to teach at the Indiana University School of Medicine as a faculty member for over 14 years.  I have had the opportunity to train many residents and students over the years, with the addition of focusing on faculty as well through overseeing the CME unit in recent years.  This is a privilege not taken lightly.  I feel strongly about trying to further my own professional development with respect to being the best teacher and physician I can be.  One such way to do this is to attend conferences relevant to one’s specialty.  I have attended many of these over the years, allowing me access to resources for networking and meeting other people who have similar interests.

Given my interest in emerging technology to improve patient care and education, I submitted an abstract to the MedX | Ed conference this year, and was pleased to have been accepted for an oral presentation related to lifelong learning and emerging technology.  I have watched the MedX conference via the live stream over the past few years, but attending in person—WOW!  What an inspirational two days!

There were so many different things to learn, and this short blog doesn’t truly do it justice; nevertheless, I will give just a few highlights that stick out for me.  Some were about newer technologies, such as what Dr. Neil Mehta presented on how to integrate technology with information management.  Some were about interprofessional education, which makes me excited when I see that the CME/CPD community has been really emphasizing the importance of this over the past several years.  Some were about connection and human touch (I expected to enjoy Dr. Abraham Verghese’s talk, but was inspired beyond my wildest dreams) to show empathy with patients.  Some were medical students themselves creating startup companies to improve medical education (Picmonic and Osmosis).  Some were about shifting the paradigm and creating curricula on updating topics related to medicine on Wikipedia.  Some were about storytelling (both from learners themselves and from patients; INCREDIBLY powerful), which I emphasize but am convinced I must emphasize even more [and for the record, YES, CME/CPD conferences SHOULD be providing MORE patient panels to hear more about the patient perspective].

This is truly a one-of-a-kind conference!  I thought I tweeted a lot during meetings (see my recent reflections on Tweeting the Meeting here and here, but wasn’t even close to some of the influencers in complete “status tweeticus”.  I thought I blogged quickly, but others created wonderful blog posts within hours and even live.

It was also great to meet many of these folks in real life (although I admit I could have been better).  In addition, through the power of social media related to this conference, I was contacted (while in the airport heading to the conference) for my opinion on a story about skills that physicians of the future need to have, which was published on day 2 of the meeting.  

A hearty “Thank You” to Larry Chu and the entire MedX | Ed team for putting on what I think is the most innovative conference I have ever had the privilege of attending.  To solve some of the current problems in healthcare, we need more than just doctors, and this conference delivered on describing some real solutions!  I hope to attend again in the future, and look forward to seeing and meeting new folks in future years.

P.S. Yes, my own presentation did include descriptions of emerging technology, storytelling, and how innovative methods of education can influence the learning process and potentially patient care!

Etiquette for Live Tweeting at Conferences

Recently, I published a paper on the topic of “Tweeting the Meeting”, along with Dr. Janine Zee-Cheng.  In that paper, we briefly discussed the topic of etiquette with respect to tweeting during conferences.  I came across this piece from a few days ago in Nature about conference tweeting.  The blog piece describes two options for the “default” at meetings.  Should the default be that tweeting is allowed (unless the speaker explicitly asks attendees not to) or that tweeting is NOT allowed (unless the speaker gives explicit permission to do so)?  I am not sure of the right answer for this, but given how common this has become, I believe that conference organizers should actively discuss this option when planning meetings, and make the default answer explicit as possible.

A problem might ensue when the default is that it is allowed, but individual speakers who know very little about Twitter are upset when they find their content disseminated via this social network.  It begs the question that guidelines or policies really should be created and disseminated to potential presenters at the time that those presenters submit their abstracts.

I wonder how many scientific associations have formal policies about this topic, and if they do, how is that policy disseminated prior to meetings?  Maybe this is an area ripe for more research, and one that should be discussed among those who plan scientific conferences.

Demonstration of "Tweeting the Meeting"

I had the privilege of writing a paper recently with Dr. Janine Zee-Cheng on Live Tweeting in Medicine: 'Tweeting the Meeting', which came out a few months ago (and allows free open access to all articles through the end of June, 2015).  In it, we highlighted the importance of lifelong learning through the use of Twitter at conferences.  I also encourage a quick read of this other great piece giving suggestions on how to live tweet in conferences.

Dr. Zee-Cheng, a pediatric critical care physician from my institution, is giving a presentation on a social media-related project she did as part of her fellowship, at a conference currently going on this week in Chicago.  The hashtag is #smaccUS (to reflect social media and critical care).  I highly encourage those who are reading this blog now to check out the tweets from this conference.  The discussions, on a variety of topics, are truly epic, and range from general content in the management of critically ill patients, to the emotional side of medicine, to introspective reflection about one’s practice, to frank humor.

While I am not at the conference (we are orienting new incoming interns to begin their clinical duties), I have learned so much from reading tweets from participants.  I encourage all interested in this topic, and literally, medicine in general, to check out the #smaccUS hashtag—you will not regret it!

Connecting from Afar: 2014 Stanford MedX

The 2014 Stanford MedX conference is going on this weekend at Stanford.  I was not able to attend (mostly due to time pressures and the fact that there are other medical meetings which I am attending this week).  In fact, I’m headed to Washington DC in a few days, where, along with Kathy Chretien and Ryan Madanick, I’ll be giving a presentation at Academic Internal Medicine Week to internal medicine educators about how to effectively use social media. 

The MedX conference sounds like a phenomenal meeting for participants to learn about the intersection of medicine and emerging technology, where the patient voice and experience was highlighted.   An announcement was even made that for the 2015 conference next year, the meeting will feature medical education as a theme.

Many people whom I respect and follow on social media networks are at the 2014 MedX conference currently, both presenting and sharing content.  There is even a live stream from the main hall that can be viewed by anyone, whether in attendance or not.  That is really cool.  I was able to view this live stream for a short while yesterday and contribute to the meeting from afar via intermittent tweets.

The Friday event had over 13,000 tweets, which is amazing.  This morning, I am still trying to catch up on some of the tweets from both Friday and Saturday.  One of the sessions which was not streamed live, but tweeted heavily, featured technology and social media within medical education.  Several well-known “tech enthusiasts” within medicine were presenting sessions there, including Bryan Vartabedian and Warren Wiechmann.  I feel somewhat knowledgable about the topic, as these two icons were the keynote speakers at our first two “Mobile Computing in Medical Education” conferences the past two years.  Other influencers like Susannah Fox and Wendy Sue Swanson, whom I still have not met in person, are influencing the crucial conversations that abound at such vibrant meetings. 

I’ve written several posts about tweeting medical meetings in the past, and am fascinated with this as a way to disseminate information to others.  It is innovative that MedX is live streaming the main stage for anyone, regardless of whether s/he registered or not.  What a great way to connect with others who could not be present this weekend in California!  Kudos to Larry Chu and others at Stanford for a great meeting and for the ability of non-participants (a better term may be “indirect participants”) to connect.  Sorry I could not be there in person, but I’m certainly there in spirit!

I realize this post is not doing justice to the many other wonderful people contributing to MedX and from whom I am gaining innumerable insights.  Thanks to all for your presentations and your tweets!

Tweeting the (Medical) Meeting

I am currently in the airport on the last leg of a brief trip to present to the Institute of Medicine about using emerging technology in medical education. I am very pleased that the IOM has agreed to use a second screen to showcase a live Twitter feed during the meeting.  I have used this “second screen” option for several presentations over the past few years; it is done as an attempt to demonstrate live the content that is being highlighted: an opportunity for communication and discussion within medical education in a unique format.

I have written about this in the past.  However, this piece from a few days ago cautioned folks who do tweet the meetings.  Dr. Bryan Vartabedian wrote this phenomenal piece on “tweeting the meeting” earlier today.  I concur 100% with his eloquent, succinct statements that really get into “what it is all about” at such meetings.

I hope the demonstration tomorrow goes well.  If interested, please follow the hashtag highlighting this meeting: #IOMgenomics.  My part is “Innovative Models of Education: Using Technology Appropriately in Medical Education” and starts around 9:45 am EST on 8/18/14.  As always, feel free to follow the #meded chat as well.