orthopedic

Physician and Content Producer – Dr. Howard Luks

Content Drove 4 Million Website Visitors

Being early to social media and blogging has an advantage when you are a physician and a content producer. Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Howard Luks began writing his blog to answer questions from his patients. After years of producing content that addressed real patient concerns he now sees over 4 million visitors to his website annually. Dr. Luks is a social media early adopter and has tried most social media platforms some of which he has dropped after not getting the results he wanted. Aside from continuing his active blogging, Dr. Luks is now live-streaming content to his audience via Periscope. Listen in to my conversation with social media pioneer Dr. Howard Luks or drop in at the time stamps below.

00:00 Introduction
00:51 Meet Dr. Howard Luks, Orthopedic Surgeon
01:34 Evolution of Social Media
Howard Luks, Physician and content producer03:57 Medical Journals
04:50 Is it a problem that social media is slow in adoption?
05:26 Pioneers have led the way
06:34 Physicians as content providers
08:00 Communicating patient education – “one man show”
09:36 Online presence is your reputation
10:42 Reviews on ZocDoc
11:49 What do your colleagues think of social media?
12:20 What drew you to social media
14:32 Have you thought about writing a book?
15:27 Use of video
17:00 Live or recorded video?
18:28 Tracking questions and comments
19:14 Age of patients and social savvy
21:30 Involved in Startup community
23:40 mHealth & Digital Health
28:41 Is that a future you’re excited about?
29:49 #TweetChats #HIT
31:10 When are you live in Twitter?
31:48 Is it harder to have conversations in Twitter?
34:30 Social Media Tip: Dr. Bryan Vartabedian “Find a Social Media Mentor”

Howard Luk’s Social Media Profiles:

The Get Social Health Academy

Thank you for joining me for Get Social Health. As you may know, I recently launched the Get Social Health Academy, an online learning space for healthcare practitioners. If you handle social media for a physician’s or other healthcare practice, check out the website for courses that can help you achieve your goals in social media. The website is Get Social Health Academy.com. If you have any questions please reach out to me at[email protected] or in Twitter @GetSocialHealth. Thanks for listening.

Secure Physician Network: Brainstorming for Cures

One of the most frequent topics in healthcare social media is how to have a meaningful dialog between physicians about medical cases. Twitter has severe character limitations, Facebook groups don’t have strong enough privacy controls and hospital internal programs may not include enough specialist experience. Realizing the need for a secure communications network to engage their orthopedic surgeons and physicians, Duke University Medical Center developed a secure physician network to to allow intercollegiate conversations.

forMD screenshotIn 2011, the platform was spun off as a med-tech startup called for[MD]. The platform is specifically designed to facilitate peer-to-peer medical discussions in affinity networks like alumni groups or medical specialties. On for[MD], physicians are connected to a private, HIPAA compliant network of their peers. Organizations receive a community management tool where they can increase member engagement, enable their physicians to exchange with each other in a secure environment, and manage their membership directory. Physician members receive access to the larger, secure physician network where they can reduce information deluge, exchange with their peers and subject matter experts, and solve professional problems quicker through the social power of community. for[MD] is now working with over 60 associations, organizations, medical specialties and university medical centers.

Get Social Health sat down with co-founder Greg Chang to discuss the for[MD] platform and the innovative thinking it inspired.

Visit our resources page for more valuable (and free!) resources on social media and digital health:

for[MD] website

Greg Chang LinkedIn profile

Co-Founder Michael Gagnon’s LinkedIn profile

Co-Founder Dr. Chad Mather’s LinkedIn profile

for[MD] Blog post: “Crowdsourcing Medical Advancements”