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Does your practice use any form of social media for marketing or patient interaction?
 |
 Lucia Scorolli |
It is very difficult in Italy to use social media because a severe control exists by the National Order of Medical Doctors. Doctors may only be interviewed after asking permission from the order, while no contact with television, newspapers or [other media] can be accepted without the order’s permission because they could pay some money. None of us can say the costs of our activities and tell you any discount because we risk expulsion [from the profession] and we cannot do the profession in this case.
We can use the Internet with the same limitations. So we can only use email with private relationships.
— Lucia Scorolli, MD
Department of
Pathophysiological Optics, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
Disclosure:
No products or companies are mentioned that would require financial
disclosure.
 Dominique Brémond- Gignac |
In France, medical marketing is not allowed directly by French laws. Moreover, social media appears as a dangerous form of communication, and even if it is well diffused in the younger population, physicians are aware of the need to keep far away from these media. So, this way of communication does not appear very attractive, even if ophthalmologists become present in some visible patients’ [social networking], as in Facebook. Linkedin is used by some colleagues to connect a group of ophthalmologists, but they remain disconnected from the public.
A new way of communication, with no direct marketing but information provided, is done with open-access publications that are sometimes visible on these media, such as Facebook. It may be a new way to diffuse fresh news about ocular pathology and treatments. Who knows what the future will be?
— Dominique Brémond-Gignac, MD,
PhD
Pediatric Ophthalmology Department, University Hospital of Amiens,
Amiens, France
Disclosure: Dr.Brémond-Gignac has no relevant
financial disclosures.
Yes, we have created our own profiles and pages in the main social media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube and a blog, [where] we develop topics of interest for our patients and visitors in general.
In all these media, we welcome opinions and consultations as they are open to comments.
— Jorge L. Alió, MD, PhD
General
Medical Director, VISSUM Corporation, Alicante, Spain
Disclosure: Dr.
Alió has no relevant financial disclosures.
What forms of social media does your practice use?
 |
 Jorge L. Alió |
We aim to provide a satisfactory response at all times to the needs of our patients, and for this reason we use the same tools for communication as those used in society. We are gradually building up our presence in the social media, starting with Facebook, where we have developed company pages and information on events, followed by Twitter, where we offer information on both [myself] and Vissum Corporation. The medical and informative videos are available on our YouTube channel and in SlideShare, while we develop more general topics in our blog.
All of these tools, complimented by our website, give us the possibility of knowing our patients’ opinions first-hand. However, we still have other issues pending, such as user communities in which our specialists in specific diseases and visual disorders can intervene.
— Jorge L. Alió, MD, PhD
General
Medical Director, VISSUM Corporation, Alicante, Spain
Disclosure: Dr.
Alió has no relevant financial disclosures.