#digitalprofessionalism

I had the great honor of speaking about Digital Professionalism and Digital Literacy today at the Information Technology in Academic Medicine conference and have had a number of great conversations afterwards.  

I wanted to put a couple of thoughts down to further frame this discussion of digital literacy and the evolution of medical education that needs to take place.  

When I get asked "What Can I Do?" to get more involved, I tend to answer with the story of how I got started in this space and how I became passionate about digital literacy...

Get Inspired! The first time I heard of many of these concepts and ideas was at the Medicine 2.0 Conference and Stanford Summit in 2010 and it completely blew my mind.  I had been fixated on the minutia of implementing technology and iPads that I didn't understand the role of technology and medicine on the grand scale.  This conference helped me see that and provide CONTEXT for technology and what we do.  All of you should attend one of these conferences - here's a short list: Medicine 2.0 Congress,  Health 2.0, Doctors 2.0, Stanford Medicine X, and TEDMED.

Find Role Models and Follow Them!  My next step was figuring out how to actually get involved and how to learn more about these tools.  Unlike most of my educational experience, there was no course for this, no book to follow, and I felt a very overwhelmed.  So I found people that knew what they were doing...and watched, and read, and learned.  You can look at my Twitter profile to see who I follow, but here are the people that inspired me when I got started:

Bryan Vartabedian @Doctor_V / 33charts.com

Michelle Lin @M_Lin / Academic Life in EM

Kevin Pho @kevinMD / KevinMD.com

Wendy Sue Swanson @seattlemamadoc /  Watch her latest TEDx Talk

Lisa Gualtieri @lisagualtieri 

Susannah Fox @susannahfox 

Afternoon Napper @AfternoonNapper / FMDchat.org

Berci Mesko @berci / Social MEDia in Medicine

Larry Chu @larrychu / Stanford's AIM Lab

Ask for Help...those of us who use social media and other emerging technologies in medicine and medical education do so because we are passionate about it, and we love to talk about our passion.  Reach out and you'll be surprised what can happen.

Participate, Share, and Collaborate Forward!  Just because your students and residents are young doesn't mean that they get it.  Teach them and engage them in these discussions.  Open their eyes and show them what is out there and what is possible and what COULD be - the medicine they will practice when they graduate will likely be very different than it is today, and it is our obligation to help them prepare for that.  

Engage and Recruit!  Engage with the decision makers at your school or hospital.  This is important, not just for students/residents, but for any practicing healthcare provider from tech/medical assistant to physician.  The leaders need to see your passion and understand why this is important and how their support can make a difference.