Many doctors probably enjoy using Facebook and other social networking sites to connect with family and friends. But if social media doesn’t play a role in your medical practice, you are missing opportunities, according to Dr. Jeffrey Benabio.
Social media is here to stay. In fact, today’s technology is just the modern incarnation of the human need to connect with other people and share information, Dr. Benabio said. At the SDEF Hawaii Dermatology Seminar, sponsored by Global Academy for Medical Education/Skin Disease Education Foundation, Dr. Benabio, physician director at Kaiser Permanente in San Diego and an avid social media user, explained three ways doctors can harness the power of current social media:
• Marketing your practice. If your website isn’t interactive, make it so. Patients want to interact, and they want information. Many patients are searching for information about specific treatments, and an informative, interactive website can be "a powerful way to relate to patients," Dr. Benabio said. And if you have an electronic medical records system, investigate options for allowing patients to make appointments online, he added.
• Connecting with other doctors. Do you have a challenging case? Want some advice? Try one of the doctor-only information sharing sites; Doximity and Sermo are two.
• Managing your reputation. Like it or not, doctor rating sites are here to stay, Dr. Benabio said. But don’t let one bad review keep you up at night. Instead, think about what type of positive content you can create online, via website, blog, twitter, or all of the above, and make social media work for you.
SDEF and this news organization are owned by the same parent company.
–Heidi Splete
*This story was updated March 1, 2013.