Speaker: Use power of social media’s storytelling for patient education, advocacy
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Key takeaways:
- Physicians’ lived experiences can help make health care education more accessible to patients.
- Community partnerships are key to help amplify physician social media efforts.
CHICAGO — In medicine, a patient’s lived experience can often be dismissed, but a physician’s lived experience and storytelling could provide needed context and make health care education more accessible, according to a speaker.
Heather Irobunda, MD, FACOG, an obstetrician and gynecologist at NYC Health + Hospitals, uses her podcast and TikTok account to advocate for health care equity and patient education. She shared her experience with the intersection of health communication, health advocacy and social media at the Women in Medicine Summit.
Source: Jennifer R. Southall
“There is something to be said about knowing where someone comes from, what they experience around them and how that affects their lives because that usually affects their health,” Irobunda said. “Physicians should ask themselves, ‘Are patients able to get their meds? Are they able to get nutrient-dense foods? Do they have a solid place to live? If you are going to send medications to them, are they still going to be living at that address?’ If the answer is no, maybe we should be activists to get that to happen and see it as an essential part of our job.”
Irobunda began using social media for patient education when she found that friends and family members were getting medical information from social media influencers.
When using social media for patient education, she advised physicians to be cognizant of not only medical literacy but also the general literacy of the target audience so that the educational message is accessible.
“[Physicians] should also include links to other authoritative resources and ask additional social media influencers to amplify social media efforts, even if they do not work in medicine,” Irobunda said. “For example, me putting a message out there and having my health care colleagues read it is great, but it might not actually help people. So, finding community partnerships is key. We often say that data drives progress and that if we give people data, they will have no other option than to do the right thing, but sometimes we need to wrap it all up in a ‘storytelling bow.’ Many individuals get lost when physicians use medical lingo, so we have to draw them in.”
Irobunda added that physicians should not be “removed from having a position on social media, but rather the jobs of physicians and medical professionals is to advocate, have a position and provide the best health care.”
For more information:
Heather Irobunda, MD, FACOG, can be reached on TikTok @drheatherirobundamd.
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Irobunda H. Dr. Heather from the block: Community activism in medicine. Presented at: Women in Medicine Summit; September 22-23, 2023.
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