Lost on Route 66

the journey IS the destination

Why Young Docs Who Google is a Good Thing

A recent study published in the International Journal of Medical Informatics found that young physicians overwhelmingly turn to Google and Wikipedia when searching for clinical information.  There isn't even a peer-reviewed resource in the top 3.   PubMed, largest biomedical literature database in the world, doesn't even make the top 5.

At first glance, this appears quite frightening.  It conjures images of an exam where your physician stops and says, "Now is this benign or malignant? Let me check Wikipedia first."  As an aside, I wonder how many physicians now have patients telling them, "I'm not sure if this is the best course of treatment. I read on Wikipedia that..."

Regardless, conclusions cannot be drawn from merely looking at resource choice.  Physicians undergo years of rigorous training.  Residency is notoriously brutal.  By the time a physician is in practice, he or she is a walking medical encyclopedia, attached to a neural network with the most advanced semantic and natural language processing algorithms in existence, which has the ability to learn and adapt based on personal and shared experiences.  And, they have taken the Hippocratic Oath, a feature that has yet to be incorporated into any medical decision-support system of which I am aware.

Perhaps these young physicians are simply using the the search tools they find most effective.  In the study, respondants cited accessibility to up to date information and ease of use are primary motivations.  Should a physician be questioned for choosing Google as a search engine, when 72% of the U.S. market does as well.  Additionally, large corporations, academic institutions, hospitals, as well as state and federal agencies use Google search technology.

The more precise question may be, "What is the physician's final source for information?"  Google Search provides links and exerpts, not the information itself.

Perhaps, these physicians are looking for something else.  What do 4 of the 5 top choices for young physicians have in common?  Answer - They foster an online community through enabling contribution and discussion.

That will be the topic of the next post, "The New Triumvirate in Research."

Presenting Twitter to your organization

These are the notes I used for a Twitter presentation for my organization.  My goal was to increase knowledge and decrease anxiety related to social media.  There was a PowerPoint presentation with keywords and concepts flying (unnecessarily) across a black background.  I gave up on it 10 minutes into the presentation.  Good thing.  It was much more effective in helping me visualize the information, than in actually conveying it.  Maybe I’ll revisit it later.

At the presentation, I proposed a short trial (2-4 weeks) where anyone within my organization who was interested would sign up for a Twitter account.  We would explore using Twitter to enhance existing communication and information sharing within our organization.  I knew full well that one can’t start a group tweeting and expect the participants to remain solely within the group.  But that works, since a secondary goal of the experiment was to help my organization gain experience using social media tools.

We’ll meet at the end of the trial period to review the types of communications that evolved and evaluate their effects, as well as discuss lessons learned.

As @levyj413 says: Mission! Tool! Metrics! Teach!

 

These notes are a little sparse and don’t reflect all of the topics discussed.  The conversation that developed during the presentation was quite productive.  While it is sometimes difficult to encourage and maintain the conversation during a presentation such as this, I have found it to be a worthwhile balance with positive outcomes.

 Also, it should be noted that I have previously given presentations to my organization discussing how the concepts of web 2.0 / social media and the paridigm shift in communication, collaboration, and content creation apply within my organization's "market."  That foundation allowed me to move quickly over certain topics and focus more on Twitter from a functional perscpetive.


Twitter 140 (as opposed to Twitter 101)


I'd be happy to have comments/suggestions.  My intention is to continue to develop this presentation and the associated materials and share the work-in-progress.