Tweeting EyeMDs: The sound of more than one hand clapping

Thursday, August 27, 2009,5:54 AM

I’ve been using Twitter since Aug 2008 and have been getting more active in recent months as I begin to better understand how to use it to gather information. Yes, when it comes to getting one direction information, such as news stories before they hit radio and at least one day before they reach the newspapers, it has been great. But … is there a way to use social media to enhance medical practices such as ophthalmology by creating some sort of community?

If you look at the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s list of Twitter followers, it currently stands at 514. Of those, a quick glance reveals that the majority of its followers are NOT ophthalmologists (EyeMDs.) If our professional organization cannot even attract a large chunk of our membership, then you might think that they need a stronger social media advocate to let the membership know that they are tweeting important news items such as research articles, and notices of upcoming conferences.

To begin to leverage social media such as Twitter as a clinically useful tool for us to help our patients, we need to start with a critical mass of EyeMDs on Twitter. While pondering how to let other EyeMDs know about Twitter and what social media will do for EyeMDs, an interesting opportunity fell on my lap. OSNSuperSite and I have been following one another for a number of months and were each liking what we were seeing and posing similar questions on the use of Twitter as an educational tool. They decided to invite a couple of EyeMDs to tweet half of a day of patient care to see what would happen.

The experiment ran yesterday, Wednesday 26Aug2009, with Cary Silverman (@TheLASIKDoc) and I (@robschertzer) tweeting from our clinical practices. As we are in different time zones, there was only 30 minutes in which we planned to overlap. When OSNSuperSite saw the tweets coming in early, as I begin from home and also have some tweets programmed to post at different times so that they reach people in different time zones, my tweets started to get retweeted by OSN before I even got to work.

What became surprising and pointed to the success of the experiment, was that Dr Silverman and I began to interact, as did OSN, as the day evolved so that Dr Silverman kept on tweeting beyond our scheduled overlap time with him in the operating room.

Although Twitter can fall victim to being the sound of just one hand clapping or a tree falling in the forest with nobody to hear it, we did start to make sounds as we began to interact. I also become more aware of the scope of the challenging cases I have to deal with on a daily basis and the challenges in educating patients in the office while keeping patient flow unobstructed; an exercise in reflective micro-journal writing.

One highlight was when Dr. Silverman mentioned his use of a Malyugin Ring for a Flomax patient to reduce the floppy iris to which I commented on it also being a life saver for me with my glaucoma patients that have small pupils. In piped OSN with a link to an article online talking about the Malyugin Ring and showing videos on its use. This is what social media should be about! That was the ah-ha moment for me during the day.

Other interaction was related to sympathizing with the challenging patient problems. If there were more EyeMDs online then I am sure that what we would have learned from each other to make for a richer experience beyond empathy and sympathy that could also have led to other clinicians piping in with advice.

The OSNSuperSite day of 140 eye tweets hinted at what EyeMDs can get out of tweeting clinical comments throughout the day. Now that we see its potential, let’s work on getting the critical mass.

• Rob Schertzer, MD, is a glaucoma specialist with West Coast Glaucoma Centre in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. This is an excerpt from his blog, WholeLottaRob.com. In addition to Twitter (robschertzer) he can be reached at 604-873-3937; e-mail: appt@lguy.org.

The OSN Twitter Project: How two tech-savvy physicians used Twitter for real-time exchange of ideas

The best way to use Twitter is to jump right in. Log onto http://twitter.com/ to create your own Twitter account. You can then choose to tweet directly from Twitter, or use one of the multitasking programs to tweet, including TweetDeck and HootSuite, and TwittelatorPro for your mobile phone.

Once you’re on Twitter, you can follow tweets from other clinicians and industry, as well as gain your own following. You can follow OSN at http://twitter.com/OSNSuperSite for a one-stop way to stay ahead of the latest buzz in ophthalmology. Once you get going, you’ll find it’s a quick and easy way to share clinical pearls and join your colleagues to reach a critical mass of Twitter.

Below is a sample of some of the tweets between OSN and Rob Schertzer, MD, from the West Coast Glaucoma Centre in Vancouver, B.C., and Cary Silverman from EyeCare 20/20 in East Hanover, N.J., on August 26, when the Twitter Project was launched.

robschertzer
12:11pm, Aug 26 from TweetDeck
Handed patient tablet PC w/Eyemagination cataract vid while we keep things moving. Always a balance to educate & keep moving.

OSNSuperSite
12:13pm, Aug 26 from HootSuite
Money quote from Dr. Schertzer: “Always a balance to educate & keep moving.” Join the discussion: @robschertzer, @TheLASIKDoc @OSNSuperSite

OSNSuperSite
1:34pm, Aug 26 from HootSuite
@robschertzer What is your favorite app?

TheLASIKDoc
1:39pm, Aug 26 from TweetDeck
@OSNSuperSite @robschertzer i use tweetDeck the most

OSNSuperSite
1:43pm, Aug 26 from HootSuite
@TheLASIKDoc @robschertzer How about for mobile phones?
in reply to TheLASIKDoc

robschertzer
1:48pm, Aug 26 from TweetDeck
Doctorus Interruptus; call from emerg >2hrs away. Pt 1 y s/p Ahmed, possible FB cornea sawing wood; wish they could send image!

robschertzer
1:51pm, Aug 26 from TweetDeck
@OSNSuperSite Fav Twitter app TwittelatorPro iphone w/ Twitterfon good too. Tweetdeck desktop only if need Day Trader view!

robschertzer
1:55pm, Aug 26 from TweetDeck
@OSNSuperSite Mobile definitely Twittelator Pro and I’ve tried them all.

TheLASIKDoc
2:02pm, Aug 26 from TweetDeck
@OSNSuperSite tweetdeck also nw available for iphone

robschertzer
2:04pm, Aug 26 from TweetDeck
@TheLASIKDoc Find Tweetdeck iPhone app pretty but not as usable as Twittelator Pro but diffstrokes4difffolks!

TheLASIKDoc
2:13pm, Aug 26 from TweetDeck
advocacy issues u care about in ophthalmology?

robschertzer
2:30pm, Aug 26 from TweetDeck
@TheLASIKDoc Hmmm....always fighting on behalf of pts to get more glaucoma surgery time; that’s my local ‘advocacy!’ And you?

TheLASIKDoc
2:46pm, Aug 26 from TweetDeck
@robschertzer @OSNSuperSite other than pt care, flomax issue and avastin use over lucentis as primary rxfor amd

robschertzer
2:54pm, Aug 26 from TweetDeck
Last Pt, chronic pain worse past few mos 5 years s/p Ahmed & eye looks pristine. All can think is try Acular for pain.

robschertzer
2:57pm, Aug 26 from TweetDeck
@TheLASIKDoc Government cut deal with retina specialists as sole providers Avastin/Lucentis; pay doc same $$ incl med cost.....

robschertzer
2:59pm, Aug 26 from TweetDeck
@TheLASIKDoc so more Avastin as Doc pockets more $$$. Opens other morality issues in profession!

robschertzer
3:01pm, Aug 26 from TweetDeck
Thanks @OSNSuperSite and @TheLASIKDoc for this Twitter extravaganza. Follow us all, tell colleagues, and let’s interact more!

TheLASIKDoc
3:07pm, Aug 26 from web
@OSNSuperSite @robschertzer or just require primary rx with avastin and save a bunch of $$

Below is the exchange regarding the Malyugin ring, collected by OSN over 1.5 hours.

TheLASIKDoc
11:31am, Aug 26 from TweetDeck
1st 3 cases, 3 toric iol’s & 1 malugin ring... I hate Flomax, TG for the ring!

robschertzer
11:57am, Aug 26 from TweetDeck
@TheLASIKDoc agree re Malyugin rings-saved my life many times for small pupil in glaucoma pts, not just for Flomax eyes

TheLASIKDoc
12:42pm, Aug 26 from TweetDeck
2nd flomax case+4NS and iris prolapse..Mal ring saves the day again!!

OSNSuperSite
12:53pm, Aug 26 from HootSuite
Malyugin ring coverage on the OSNSuperSite: http://ow.ly/lql

robschertzer
1:05pm, Aug 26 from TweetDeck
@OSNSuperSite Good idea tweeting Malyugin ring info when we were talking about it just now! Gr8 use of Twitter!