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The Story of cholera. Short animated film explaining how to prevent the spread of Cholera.

Great video: US vet and school boy talk about rabies. Note: Australian animals have not been shown to carry rabies, and therefore animals are not routinely vaccinated against the virus. Lyssavirus, which is a close relative of the rabies virus, does occur in the Australian bat population. This virus was first discovered in 1996 but does not seem to be able to spread to terrestrial mammals. Handling bats should be avoided.

People travel to faraway places to watch, in fascination, the kind of people they ignore at home.
Dagobert D. Runes
Are you using your real name or an alias?

Tonight I participated in an online forum discussion about the use of an alias in social networks. It’s an interesting topic, causing heated debates when Google+ started its real name policy

It’s often said that the core values of social media are openness, connecting, and sharing. Social media is also about maintaining and building a network of relationships between people, not just about exchanging (anonymous) opinions.

The negative side of social media is that it sometimes causes people to reveal more information than they should - especially sharing of inappropriate photos, rigid political views or other people’s personal or sensitive information. Unfortunately this can inadvertently happen to all of us, but it is easier to cross the line when people are not using their real names.

To mitigate risks and enjoy the benefits of social media at the same time a good social media policy is required. The Queensland business guidelines for social media say: “Always identify yourself. Whenever you write about your business, use your real name, identify your business and be clear about your role. If you have a vested interest in what you are discussing, be the first to say so.” 

I think it’s good practice for health professionals to use their real names when talking about health related topics. If it is not possible for a health professional to share information without hiding behind an alias, it should probably not be shared at all.

Creating A Social Media Policy

Professional use of social media is slowly moving into the Australian health care sector. At the 2012 Travel Clinics Australia Conference held in Singapore recently, many travel clinic doctors and nurses showed interest in professional social media networking.
I thought the discussion during and after the conference was good: The right questions were asked and the need for a Social Media Policy was discussed.

What should a policy look like? First of all, the purpose of the policy is to outline some guidelines about how to engage within social media networks. Sometimes it’s part of, or referred to, in a broader communication policy that outlines when and how to use eg email, messenger and social media. For example, if you expect an answer from someone within 24 hours it may be better to send an email or pick up the phone than to send a message via Twitter or Facebook.

Social media is an excellent tool for health promotion and sharing information, to listen to & engage with clients - respecting privacy of all parties at all times - and for marketing purposes such as strengthening your brand. A social media policy should take all this into account and provide some basic guidelines how to achieve these goals.
A common topic usually addressed in social media policies is how to behave online to avoid a conflict between private life & your (employee’s) professional role.
Our practice has the policy to never consult or give medical advice online as this can lead to all sorts of problems for patient & doctor. Interestingly, we have never been asked to do this so I guess most people are aware of the issue.

I do recommend the AMA Social Media Guidelines (http://ama.com.au/socialmedia), as it gives lots of examples of how not to use social media. There is some anxiety amongst health care professionals about the medicolegal pitfalls but common sense goes a long way: just like the information provided on many practice websites, the information published in social media networks is public and people can and should read it. Remember the overheated discussions in the nineties when doctors were going online for the first time? It’s my guess that in 2-3 years time nobody will blink a eyelid about social media anymore….

Sharlyn Lauby has published a great article on Mashable about creating a social media policy, and there are a few simple things to keep in mind to avoid missteps and engage customers.

10 tips to create a social media policy:

1. Introduce the purpose of your social media policy.
2. Be responsible for what you write.
3. Be authentic.
4. Consider your audience.
5. Exercise good judgment.
6. Understand the concept of community.
7. Respect copyrights and fair use.
8. Remember to protect confidential & proprietary info.
9. Bring value.
10. Find the right balance between social media and other work.

Here is the link to the full article: http://mashable.com/2009/06/02/social-media-policy-musts/

Australian health professionals’ social media adoption.

Australian health professionals’ social media adoption.

Doctor Twitter keeps a finger on the pulse

It looks like Twitter is a useful tool to assist in detecting disease outbreaks around the globe.
A study published earlier this week in The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene showed that informal data about the 2010 Haitian cholera outbreak, including tweets, correlated closely with official health sources AND was available up to 2 weeks earlier!
It’s amazing if you think about it: Twitter seems to be able to detect and monitor infectious disease outbreaks, check the world’s mood, and predict a range of other trends - like how often a scientific article will be quoted by others. Doctor Twitter keeps a finger on the pulse of the global community!
I am looking forward to 2012 and the many, yet to discover ways in which we can use social media in health care.

Source: http://www.ajtmh.org/content/86/1/39.abstract

Is The Medical Profession Ready To Take The Plunge Into Twitter?

It seems like social media are becoming more popular within the health profession. Most medical students, registrars and younger docs are ‘connected’, often via their smartphones. But it’s not only the younger age groups that show an interest in social media. And it’s not just about social chitchat either. I see all age groups on Twitter, mostly exchanging links to medical websites, articles, latest health news and developments within areas of interest and specialties.

And the word spreads fast on Twitter: by the time news hits the papers, the Twitter community is already aware. No wonder Twitter has proven itself as the go-to service in case of emergencies and disasters.

Still, there are doctors hesitating. Issues like privacy and time limitations are concerns. However, in my opinion social media are not the right place to discuss patient cases. On average I spend half an hour per day on Twitter reading the latest about research & technology, disease outbreaks and health in general. I know people that don’t spend more than 10 minutes per day on social media.

Twitter is a useful tool for medical organisations and professional bodies. A brilliant example of how to create a social media presence can be seen on the CDC website: If you’d like to get inspired, have a look here.

More About Travel Medicine On Twitter…

I mainly use Twitter professionally, to stay up to date. Since I’ve been on Twitter - for about 6 months now - I have learned heaps, read articles and found information that I otherwise wouldn’t have access to. When it comes to travel health, the new #tvlmed hashtag is a source of useful information. Sarah Kohl (@TravelReadyMD) and I have recently started the Travel Medicine Daily. This newsletter is generated automatically by paper.li and makes a selection from all links shared on Twitter via #tvlmed. Have a look at today’s edition here: http://t.co/FZyCBM4 Feel free to contribute; just add #tvlmed to your tweets. David Corbet (@corbetron) suggested that I also mention the list of travel health providers on Twitter - thanks David! - so here it is: http://bit.ly/jduovi Please let me know if I have missed someone (very likely) and I will add you to the list!

If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough
Albert Einstein