(left to right) Dr. Howard Liu, Dr. Linda Love, Dr. Lindsey Smith and Dr. Donald Hilty gather after their presentation on social media at the 2018 ADMSEP Conference. Dr. Liu co-authored a paper on social media skills in the Psychiatry Clinics of North America journal.
Department of Psychiatry Chair Dr. Howard Liu has co-authored a paper to show how social media skills can increase professional development in psychiatry and medicine.
Dr. Liu (Twitter handle: @DrHowardLiu) has long had a substantial presence on social media sites like Twitter and professional networking sites like LinkedIn. Currently, Dr. Liu has nearly 10,000 followers on Twitter – many of whom are in the health care field.
“Twitter is a real-time, 365 day/24/7 conference,” Dr. Liu said. “National and international colleagues in medicine and mental health are online, and they are reacting to news events, journal articles, best practices, health care culture, etc. As a trainee or an attending physician, you have a chance to express yourself online and connect with thought leaders. It’s a very “flat” or egalitarian platform where famous speakers dialogue with medical students and vice versa.”
Dr. Liu co-authored the article with Dr. Eugene Beresin (@GeneBeresinMD) – founder of the Mass General Hospital’s Clay Center – a pediatric media center in Boston – and Dr. Meg Chisolm; a national expert on social media and scholarship. Dr. Liu met Dr. Chisolm (@whole_patients)while both were attending the American College of Psychiatrists meeting. They are professors of psychiatry at Harvard and Johns Hopkins, respectively.
“This paper was conceived when Dr. Chisolm and I were live-tweeting the American College of Psychiatrists meeting. We wondered how we could get more psychiatrists online to share best practices and to advocate for patients,” said Dr. Liu.
The paper, which was included in the most recent Psychiatry Clinics of North America journal, discusses four key points:
1. Twitter is a useful social media platform to facilitate professional development and advocacy.
2. Social media can help psychiatrists develop a professional brand.
3. Networking is one of the significant advantages of social media.
4. Several organizations, journals, and specialty societies are using Twitter to enhance member engagement and interest in resources/articles.
“You can spend as much or as little time on social media as you’d like. I recommend new users get online at least once a week to like, retweet, or follow fellow psychiatrists, or organizations like the American Psychiatric Association and journals in their specialty area” said Dr. Liu.
Read the full article at http://bit.ly/liutwitterpaper