‘It's on us to do a better job of communicating’ on social media, physician says
Physicians should embrace connection and sharing on social media, thoughtfully develop and grow their communities over time and always be a voice of truth, transparency and honesty, according to Shernan Holtan, MD.
Holtan, professor of medicine and chief of blood and marrow transplantation at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, took part in a meet-the-professor session during the Transplantation & Cellular Therapy Meetings of the American Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy and Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research in Honolulu.
During the session, she discussed best practices for leveraging social media as a professional platform for networking, education, mentorship, advocacy, dissemination of scientific work and career advancement.
Healio spoke with Holtan about these topics, the importance of physician presence across social media platforms and more.
Healio: How did you, as a physician, become involved in social media?
Holtan: We all recognize that people in health care can get “tunnel vision” around certain topics or certain authors. When searching for an article, an individual may be inclined to read something based upon name recognition, institution or something else about the status of the authors. As an early career researcher, I knew I needed to do something to get my research out into the public and not leave it to chance that someone would happen to read my work. I knew I would have to actively engage with a broad community to share my work.
I started by engaging on [X], when it was still called Twitter, and I first started to link articles I thought were interesting and could open up discussions. Over time, I grew a close-knit community of transplant professionals, including physicians, but also nurses, pharmacists and even patients. Developing that community meant that we could have some interesting and detailed discussions about the latest research in the field.
By the time I had more data of my own to share, that community had already been cultivated. It meant that some of my work would be reviewed by thousands of people in 1 day when I shared it on that platform vs. if I relied only on “nature to take its course” and for people to find my work on their own. It was such a huge benefit to be able to reach such a great audience, and not just a general audience, but an audience that was already a close-knit community. It was a meaningful connection. That’s how I started — developing relationships and discussing recent research. When I had some of my own work, I was able to share and already connect with a large group of people.
Healio: What were the top three takeaways of your talk?
Holtan: First, don’t fear connection and sharing on social media. It’s beneficial for anyone in the health care field who feels comfortable to engage publicly on social media and speak to your expertise — you won’t find me commenting a lot on things that I don’t know about.
We don’t have to have an opinion about everything, but we can certainly share in areas we do have deep expertise, concerns or wishes. Engagement on social media should be authentic. Whenever we’re authentic in terms of discussing issues that are meaningful to us, the conversations are potentially transformative. There are good connections and good conversations to be had — do not fear social media and engage as you feel comfortable.
The second takeaway is to develop a community over time. Search hashtags and key words, and you’ll start to find your people. For example, in my field of transplantation, I use #GVHD to look for graft-versus-host-disease-related content, or #BMTSM for blood and marrow transplant social media.
It is honestly such a joy to make those genuine connections, and not just with people who work in health care or with patients, but even industry connections as well. There’s a lot of learning we can do when we’re open to conversation. I’ve had some great conversations with industry partners, as well as with people who provide health care and with patients and families all over the world.
It is such a powerful tool for connection. Grow your community and do so with intention.
My third point is to be a voice of truth, transparency and honesty. Discuss some of the difficulties in the field. Discuss with transparency what it’s like to develop a new therapy from the lab all the way through to a clinical trial, as well as some of the pitfalls and challenges we face as a medical community. That should all be shared.
We need to do a better job of communicating about our process, because patients and families don’t necessarily understand what steps are required when developing a clinical trial or what a clinical trial even means and why it may be good for them. The steps are not well-known to the public, and no one else will tell them if we don’t. Be transparent about how clinical research is conducted and why it can be beneficial, but also share some of its limitations.
It is also important to be transparent about the role of industry in clinical trials, and differentiate between concepts that are truly homegrown vs. those coming from industry. Be open about how physicians engage in these different types of research and try to dispel some of the myths surrounding what we do.
Healio: Why is it so important for physicians to have a presence on social media?
Holtan: We have to recognize that there is a lot of inaccurate information out there about medicine, clinical research and cancer therapy itself, which is understandable, because there are still poor outcomes. We still have patients who are suffering, and modern medicine hasn’t been able to address all the maladies.
People, very understandably, are reaching out grasping for some sign of hope. If someone posts on social media, “My cousin took a combination of natural supplements and is now cured from stage IV cancer,” that will give someone hope. I can understand how that type of information can be spread.
We are working hard to try to find a way for every patient to have a good outcome from their cancer treatment, or whatever disease or complication we are researching. We need to truly engage with people so they know we are not the enemy.
Look at the substantial cuts that have been proposed to health care and research agencies, including the NIH. People are celebrating this broadly, because there’s a perception that there’s a lot of waste, fraud and abuse. That is on us to explain how the funds are used and to be transparent about the processes and the real costs that go into research. If we don’t explain that to the public, nobody will.
It’s an important role for us to be direct scientific communicators, so that more people understand the value of what we do and can then stand up for continuing support for biomedical research. If they don’t understand the process, they won’t be supportive of it. Now, more than ever, it is critical that we do a better job of communicating.
Healio: What key advice can you offer physicians who may be wary about having a presence on social media?
Holtan: A great place to start is within one’s own expertise. Start by replying to posts that have already been made. Another option is linking to an article, publication, clinical trial or something you thought was interesting or raised a good question. You can open an article up for questions or start polls to get public opinion on certain topics.
Come at it from an angle that you’re genuinely curious about the responses and not trying to “open a can of worms” that is going to create a fight online. That certainly should not be the goal. Instead, come from a place of genuine curiosity.
For example, I created a post several years ago that was pretty eye-opening for me. I had asked questions broadly of my community on [X]: What are the unmet needs in the field of transplantation? Should we work on reducing toxicities of transplant? Should we focus on reducing the risk for relapse of cancer after transplant? Should we work on better GVHD therapies? Should we work on getting rid of prednisone as the primary therapy for GVHD?
I thought I knew what people were going to say, but there was an interesting distinction in what the poll results were in terms of the voting vs. the comments.
From the poll results, it seemed as though the community wanted us to focus on relapse, but patients became quite engaged in the question about prednisone. High-dose prednisone — and its related complications — is one of the worst things patients with GVHD go through. Patients asked to focus on eliminating prednisone as a therapy for GVHD.
That was really compelling and eye-opening for me. Here’s a community of patients telling me what they want and I should listen to them. We should pay attention to what the patients are saying. I created my next clinical trial with that in mind. We decided to bring novel therapies into the GVHD space and see if we could eliminate prednisone. Those clinical trials are ongoing and that was directly because of the patient voice.
So, jump in on a conversation, and recognize that, depending on the platform, you’re going to get a mixed population of people responding to you. But that’s a wonderful thing. It’s awesome to be able to hear from colleagues from around the world and get their different perspectives. It is wonderful to hear from industry partners, too, but how awesome is it to get direct feedback from patients and families and caregivers as well.
This type of engagement gives us a broad perspective and can help us focus in ways that are surprising or have us go in a direction we wouldn’t have necessarily gone before. It’s our duty to serve our patients and to really listen to what they have to say about the needs in the field.
Healio: How can physicians rise above the negative they may encounter on social media?
Holtan: We should not engage in personal attacks — that’s not fruitful. Keep the discussions limited to data and experience.
We can argue that some studies may have flaws, but let’s not get personal about the design of the study or who designed it. The reality is that some studies we might think are deeply flawed have problems because of the criteria imposed by a regulatory body. The investigators wouldn’t have chosen to do it that way, but they were stuck.
Remember there is a lot we don’t know about discussions that happen behind the scenes, and it’s never useful to directly attack another person. Keep discussions about the science. There will be some negativity, of course, but just ignore it and move on. Realize that anyone can be bold online, and anyone can be anonymous to a certain degree. When we put ourselves out there, not being anonymous, people may come out of the woodwork and throw out some negative comments. When engaging with negativity, do so from a place of objectivity regarding data, methods, processes and limitations. No one wins when we get into personal attacks online.
Healio: Is there anything else that you would like to mention?
Holtan: Social media sites have a mix of populations, and it’s OK to engage across multiple platforms because you’re going to reach and connect with different types of individuals in different spaces. There’s not one social media site that’s right for everyone.
Recognize the audience may differ between sites — and that can be a good thing. To that point, sometimes it’s even more important for us to go into spaces that may be unfriendly and discuss science there as well. We don’t want any particular site to become an echo chamber for misinformation.
We all know that there are some social media sites where there may be a risk for more misinformation being spread, and it is OK to be a voice of truth and honesty and scientific integrity in those spaces. We need positive examples everywhere.
Reference:
- Holtan S. MTP-09. How #some (social media) can be an asset for hematologists and oncologists. Presented at: The Tandem Meetings | Transplantation & Cellular Therapy Meetings of ASTCT and CIBMTR; Feb. 12-15, 2025; Honolulu.
For more information:
Shernan Holtan, MD, can be reached on X @sghmd or Bluesky @sghmd.bsky.social.
Collapse
Holtan S. MTP-09. How #some (social media) can be an asset for hematologists and oncologists. Presented at: The Tandem Meetings | Transplantation & Cellular Therapy Meetings of ASTCT and CIBMTR; Feb. 12-15, 2025; Honolulu.
Read more about