“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” ― Benjamin Franklin

The use of social media in medicine has experienced enormous growth in the past few years, and this short blog post can’t even start to scratch the surface.

A great overview of the importance of social media in the field of rheumatology was recently published earlier in 2014 by Dr. Francis Berenbaum (@Larhumato), rheumatologist from Paris, titled The social (media) side to rheumatology in Nature Reviews Rheumatology. This paper includes discussion of the use of social media in medical education (for providers and patients), how it has affected the doctor-patient relationship (in a great way), and its role in medical research.

Twitter has become the centerpiece of social media in the medical world, and has become an increasingly important part of major medical meetings. The upcoming American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting in Boston will be using the Twitter hashtag #ACR14.

A great resource if you’re new to using Twitter and hashtags at a medical meeting is Symplur’s Healthcare Hashtag Project, who currently has an #ACR14 Conference Hashtag page, which is helpful in getting an overview of the conference from the perspective of Twitter. In their words:

Our hope is that we can lower the barriers of entry, decrease the learning curve, and enhance the experience of new users.  But we’d also like to introduce experienced healthcare Twitter users to a fresh look, to new information, and to new people who share your passions.

Additional rheumatology hashtags to explore:

• Rheumatology education hashtag #rheumedu, originally described in this blog post: #rheumedu. A new Hashtag for Rheumatology education.
• The new musculoskeletal medicine hashtag #mskstu, described here: The Rheumatologist, The Student, and the ever so humble Hashtag.

With all of this in mind, I’m extremely excited to be part of the following social media events this year in Boston:

Social Media Bootcamp

The goal of the social media bootcamp is to introduce more individuals to the core tools in social media: Twitter and blogging. These sessions are the brainchild of Dr. Ronan Kavanagh (@RonanTKavanagh), and I’m happy to be involved moderating the Sunday session and speaking on the technical aspects of setting up a blog on Monday. Also speaking are Dr. Philip Gardiner (@PhilipGardiner) and Dr. Christopher Collins (@RheumPearls).

More information about the Social Media Bootcamp was discussed in the Preview Issue of the Annual Meeting Daily News and in The Rheumatologist.

Times and descriptions:

• Sunday, Nov. 16, 9:00–10:00 a.m.: Twitter Basics—The thoughts, opinions and ideas of your rheumatology colleagues, in 140 characters or less, shared in real time for open discussion. Learn how to tweet and engage participants in live tweet forums during the conference!
• Monday, Nov. 17, 9:00–10:00 a.m.: Blogging for Beginners—Learn the basics of setting up a blog and how to use it effectively to communicate with targeted audiences. Blogging can be a great resource for communicating timely and relevant content in easily digestible quantities. These will include two sessions.

#ACR14 Tweetup

• When:  Sunday November 16 from 4:30-6:00pm
• Where: Room 150 of the Boston Convention Center

The yearly gathering of rheumatology Twitter friends from across the globe has gotten to be a bigger and better event each year. Take a look at my post on last years #ACR13 Tweetup and this post that includes links back to every prior rheumatology tweetup that I could find.

Just as last year, this event will again open to anyone who would like to attend. No need to RSVP (although I would appreciate it if you would leave a quick comment to this post if you plan on going, just to get a sense of how many people might attend).

If anyone has questions, feel free to ask me on Twitter (@psufka) or else in the comments below.

I look forward to catching up with everyone again this year.