• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

33 Charts

  • About
    • What is 33 Charts?
    • Bryan Vartabedian MD
  • Blog
  • 33mail
  • Foci
    • Social/Public Media
    • Physicians
    • Patients
    • Hospitals
    • Information
    • Process/Flow
    • Technology
    • Digital culture
    • Future Medicine
  • The Public Physician
Physicians, Social/Public Media

Doctors Using Social Media: No Longer New

June 9, 2013 By Bryan Vartabedian · Reading Time: 2 minutes

MikeSevillaThis week marked the departure of blogger Mike Sevilla from public view.  Operating as Doctor Anonymous in the earlier years of medical blogging, his colorful contributions to the big conversation will be missed.  The thinking surrounding his decision is here.

I have a couple of thoughts about Mike’s silence and how the world turns.

Things aren’t like they used to be.   The early days of blogging were magical in many respects, but they’re gone.  And while we may romanticize the small world feel of the early years, there’s just as much about the mid-2000’s worth leaving behind.

Social media is less relevant.  One element of our world that has changed since then is the fact that we are less preoccupied with the medium.  Social tools have achieved a level of baseline adoption making them less novel.  Medical blogs are a dime a dozen, most doctors use Facebook (at least personally) and it has become practically impossible to track the numbers of doctors now using Twitter.

It’s not the tools but what you do with them.  More important than our preoccupation with the applications themselves is what we do with them.  The near future will be owned not by doctors who ‘do social media’ but those who apply these tools to move the chains forward.  Mike was spot-on with Family Medicine Rocks, a much needed platform for dialog around family medicine.

Noise.  Noise was apparently one element of the social environment that might have pushed Mike into the dark.  Understood.  As the audience grows and doctors and patients all talk at once, some shout in order to be heard.  For many, volume and frequency is the way to be heard.

But we let in the noise.  We facilitate the noise in our environment.  I work to create the right signal for myself.  I don’t tolerate shouting, politics, vitriol, anger, grandstanding, off-topic verbosity, pontificating and other nonsense that steals my soul and eats my emotional bandwidth.   Maintaining that signal requires constant attention.  I work to shape this input with an eye for smart, measured contributors and liberal use of the unfollow button.  In the old days it was cool to think that you could listen to everyone.  If you listen to everyone, you ultimately hear nothing.

The cocktail party’s over.  Those who have been here for a while must think about how the public part of medicine is changing and evolving.  We have to move beyond social tools as cocktail party to the public conversation as mechanism to redefine and shape our profession.

Pictured in orange is Mike Sevilla participating on a panel in San Francisco.  Mike was known for his colorful shirts.

Related Articles

  • Social Media: Managing Expectations with Doctors
  • Social Media: Like Waiting Room Furniture
  • Doctors and Social Media: Failure is Inevitable

Tagged With: Social media

Related Articles

  • Social Media: Managing Expectations with Doctors
  • Social Media: Like Waiting Room Furniture
  • Doctors and Social Media: Failure is Inevitable

Primary Sidebar

Bryan Vartabedian, MD

Bryan Vartabedian, MD
Bryan Vartabedian is the Chief Pediatrics Officer at Texas Children’s Hospital North Austin and one of health care’s influential
voices on technology & medicine.
Learn More

Popular Articles

  • The Fate of Fired Cleveland Clinic Resident Lara Kollab
  • Cures Act Final Rule – How It Will Change Medicine
  • 12 Things About Doximity You Probably Didn’t Know
  • Should Physicians Give Their Cell Phone Number to Patients?
  • Doximity Dialer Video – Telemedicine’s Latest Power Player

Sign up for 33mail newsletter

Featured Articles

The Case for New Physician Literacies in the Digital Age

Yes, Doctor

Health Care and the Visibility-Value Continuum

Doctors and social media: Damned if you engage, damned if you don’t

Will the Future Need Doctors?

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Footer

What is 33 Charts?

With a mashup of curated and original content that crosses the spaces of digital health, media, communication, technology, patient experience, digital culture, and the humanities, 33 charts offers unique insight and analysis on the changing face of medicine.

Founded in 2009 as a center of community and thought leadership for the issues doctors face in a digital world, 33 charts was included in the National Library of Medicine permanent web archive in 2014.
Learn More

Foci

  • Digital culture
  • Digital Health
  • EHR/Health IT
  • Future Medicine
  • Hospitals
  • Information
  • Patients
  • Physicians
  • Process/Flow
  • Quality
  • Social/Public Media
  • Technology

Copyright © 2023 · 33 Charts · Privacy Policy