I’m big on eye contact with patients. It’s how we show ourselves as humans. The eyes are the windows to the soul. Through them, we build trust, empathy and reciprocity. When I’m with a patient face-to-face it isn’t always possible but I do my best. Like the IRL experience I try to achieve some level of eye contact during telemedicine encounters. But care through ... Continue Reading about The Illusion of Eye Contact with Telemedicine
Joe Biden, Section 230 and the Future of Communication
As the country moves from Joe Biden as the anti-Trump option to Joe Biden as leader of the free world, I’ve been thinking about how things might change in medicine, media and technology under his administration. I want to drill down on this idea of censorship and content moderation which became a thing during the 2020 election. It’s become normalized on some ... Continue Reading about Joe Biden, Section 230 and the Future of Communication
WHO Joins TikTok – Thinking Coronavirus and Communication
To fight misinformation around the coronavirus pandemic, the WHO (World Health Organization) recently joined TikTok. Crazy? Maybe not. When the public health arm of the United Nations joins the trendiest new social network you know something serious is going on. https://youtu.be/7Hvs_S9uMGY So what can we learn when the WHO joins TikTok? We can draw a couple ... Continue Reading about WHO Joins TikTok – Thinking Coronavirus and Communication
Communication and the Law of Constraint
The smaller the space you have to communicate the more the preparation you need. I think of this as the law of constraint. When I have lots of space I’m a little lazy and loose with what I deliver. Smaller spaces, however, require real thought. Think about it: 140 characters on Twitter took more thinking than 280. Prepping an 18 minute TED talk is ... Continue Reading about Communication and the Law of Constraint
Nobody Cares About TikTok – But Everybody Loves Connection
Nobody cares about TikTok. Just like no one cares about electricity. But we all care about is what electricity allows us to do. And people love how TikTok allows them to connect and creatively appear to the world. For health professionals this is one more piece in their communication wardrobe (if you wear this kind of thing). So our interest in ... Continue Reading about Nobody Cares About TikTok – But Everybody Loves Connection
The Long Visit Fallacy – The Right Attention for the Patient
Many believe that a long visit with the doctor is a good medical visit. This is the long visit fallacy. Years ago I had a partner who related poorly to parents. So after some discussion and counseling he thought he’d fix the problem by spending more time with families. Time, of course, is correlated with compassion. And caring doctors take lots of time, we ... Continue Reading about The Long Visit Fallacy – The Right Attention for the Patient