September 18, 2017
TMC Encourages Doctors to Create a Social Media Presence
Image Courtesy of Christina Hall
Your Doctor Will Tweet You Now
For doctors who want to create a social media presence or engage an audience, JLABS @ TMC brought in two experts Tuesday to offer guidance, as well as tips to help them become sources for health care journalists.
Steven Cutbirth, operations lead for MDigitalLife, which helps clients understand, engage and activate the online health ecosystem, and Meredith Owen, senior analytics director at W20 Group, which leads insights and measurements for healthcare clients.
“Journalists are looking for information, so there is an opportunity to receive significant press from having active online presence,” Cutbirth said.
He gave some examples of doctors who have positioned themselves as influencers on social media. Nationally, one of the top influencers is Eric Topol, M.D., professor of genomics at The Scripps Research Institute, and the founder and director of the
Scripps Translational Science Institute. Topol (@EricTopol) has more than 112,000 followers and has sparked activism on Twitter. For example in April, when the American Heart Association came out with new guidelines for statins, medication that lowers the risk of cardiovascular disease, Topol was one of the first to question them, Cutbirth said.
Locally, Cutbirth called out Bryan Vartabedian, a gastroenterologist with Texas Children’s Hospital in The Woodlands. @Doctor_V has gained a following of more than 31,000 people, many of them healthcare providers.
“He has a strong media following, and has even publicly said he is someone willing to talk to people about their initiatives and work,” he said. “That is a great way to earn press about yourself.”