The Intersection of Medicine, Social Media and Technology

Session 105

In this episode, Ryan interviews Dr. Bryan Vartabedian, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine, who has been a witness to the social health revolution and its influence on doctors and patients. Aside from being an active keynote/panel speaker, Dr. Vartabedian also writes about the intersection of medicine, social media, and technology at his blog 33 charts.

In this episode, he will share with us his path to medicine, his new book The Public Physician and some of the ins and outs of being a physician in today’s online world – finding your voice and creating value from it, and why you shouldn’t be afraid of having a public presence and more importantly, how you can leverage it!

Here are the highlights of the conversation with Dr. Vartabedian:

His path into medicine and what made him decide to go to medical school
Taking a side path into digital medicine and public communication
Writing his book, Colic Solved in 2006 published by Random House
Starting a blog with the initial intent of selling his books but became a platform for a whole other opportunities
His informational blog Parenting Solved, as a spin-off of the book which is about pediatric medicine translated to parents
Jumping into Twitter in 2008 and seeing lots of doctors in the public space
The culture of permission as one of the most dangerous cultural elements of medicine
How physicians are utilizing social media today
How Digital Smarts can help premed and medical students along their path
Learning how not to be “stupid” and dealing with the risks and opportunities
What premed and medical students should avoid once they become public physicians
Why premeds should not be afraid of the public presence
Admissions committees looking at an applicant’s digital footprint
Using content strategy to drive patients to your door
The purpose behind his book The Public Physician
Where to begin as a new physician and drawing out your digital map
Twitter as a social platform of choice for physicians
Creating value as key to build your audience
Having that authority to influence others by following your passion.

Some pieces of advice for premed students:

Make a resolution to understand that what you share public has an element of scalability, permanence, and searchability that we should not be afraid of. We should leverage that.
Visibility creates opportunity.

There are so many things we can do with our public presence. Think about what you might want to get out of this. Find people whom you can model from and watch them for a while.
We all have individual voices and individual passions. You have to see that from all other public physicians that you follow. Follow your true passion and cultivate. Have conversations about it and crete about it.

Links and Other Resources:

Blueprint MCAT (formerly Next Step Test Prep): Maximize your MCAT score and get $100 off their tutoring program when you mention that you heard about this on the podcast or through the MSHQ website.

Episode 59 – MCAT Retakes – Change and Improve to Get the Score You Want

Episode 87 – 5 Things You Need to Do to Start Preparing for MCAT 2015

Dr. Bryan Vartabedian’s blog 33 charts

Get Dr. Vartabedian’s book The Public Physician.

Connect with Dr. Bryan Vartabedian on Twitter @doctor_v

Check out our partner magazine, www.premedlife.com to learn more about awesome premed information.

Listen to our podcast for free at iTunes: medicalschoolhq.net/itunes and leave us a review there!