I WILL TEACH THEM MY ART : SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE FUTURE OF MEDICAL EDUCATION
Michael Burk , MD
I
first heard about the incident after the first disciplinary hearing . A fellow medical student had posted what he believed to have been a de-identified anecdote about a patient he had seen on social media . A nurse from the hospital had been able to figure out who the patient was from the anecdote and had reported him to the medical school administration . He was by all accounts a bright , conscientious and caring person . He worked hard , would volunteer to stay late , knew his patients well and appeared that he would be able to match his first choice in an extremely competitive field . I speak in the past tense because this was considered to be a career ending mistake .
We are crossing the chasm of a great generational divide in medicine . As social media has invaded the medical world over the last two decades , our profession has struggled to cope with the ramifications of the collision of social and professional mores . Barely a month passes between hearing of a life ruined , a professional reputation tarnished , or a patient ’ s family wounded by a lapse in judgment on social media . Since the first Facebook status was posted and the first Tweet was typed , the medical community has viewed social media as something to be feared as the source of innumerable HIPAA violations and malpractice suits . The medical field has been wise to acknowledge the power of social media ; yet , in our fear , we have done little to harness that power for the good of the profession . The newest groups of physicians have been born and raised to use , grow and maintain an online presence through social networking . With the influx of technologically-savvy young physicians , this is a medium which we must embrace as a tool of empowerment rather than cowering from its potential consequences .
I have seen firsthand our professional world collide headlong with that of technology . Early in my medical school career at a satellite campus of a medical school , many of our lectures were given by Ph . D . professors in the appropriate fields of basic sciences , per tradition . These professors wrote the midterm test , but never the final exam . After much of our class nearly failed our first final because of this discrepancy , we found a way to get the recorded lectures from the main campus , which were much better suited to the comprehensive