Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Physicians and Blogging - II

11:41 PM Nrip Nihalani

This is a follow up post to "Physicians and Blogging". Here we look at Tips for Physicians to make their Blogging experience more useful, effective and mostly fun.

1. Clearly identify a theme for your blog.

A Blog is like any other project. If you don't have a path you won't know where you end up. Create a central theme for your blog and stick to it. Avoid making multifaceted and complicated blogs


2. Use Pictures as much as possible

A picture speaks a 1000 words. To make your blogging appeal more to your readers, it would be extremely nice if you will put some pictures in it.

N.B It does not necessarily mean you have to place a picture of yourself.


3. Make it interactive

As much as possible and if your capacity will allow it, make your blog interactive. You can do this by placing some video or audio clips in your blog.You can even place an area for comments. In this way, you can get the impressions and/or reactions of other people. Who knows, you might even gain some friends just by making them feel at home in your blog site.


4. Choose a good Blogging Engine

While there are many blogging platforms and applications, there are a few simple ones which are more popular than others. Blogger and Wordpress both offer multiple free and simple to customize themes. They are both easy to use and allow one to post text, images, audio as well as videos.

In future posts we will provide a tutorial to setup a blog using each

5. Network Online

The more you network online, the more your blog gets visibility. Share your posts on Social networks. Ask other readers to give you suggestions, respond to comments. The success this brings will push you to blog more and will help make your blog even more meaningful.


Feel free to post your suggestions as well as links to your blogs in the comments sections below.
If you'd need any help setting up blogs for yourself, please let us know. We'll be Happy to Help


Happy #hcsm via @TechnicalDr and @nrip

What is ePrescribing?

10:36 AM Nrip Nihalani

ePrescribing(Electronic prescribing ) is the computer-based electronic generation, transmission and filling of a medical prescription,in effect automating the prescribing processes. E-prescribing allows a physician, nurse practitioner, or physician assistant to electronically transmit a new prescription or renewal authorization to a community or mail-order pharmacy.

Along the way, the system offers instant access to patient medication history, formulary coverage and decision support, helping you make the best possible medication choice for patients.

ePrescribing is a viable solution to counter shortcomings of the current paper-based prescribing processes that are in large part responsible for these errors

Benefits of ePrescribing:

  1. Improved patient safety and overall quality of care
  2. Reduces phone calls and call-backs to pharmacies.
  3. Eliminates faxes to pharmacies.
  4. Streamlines the refill's requests and authorization processes.
  5. Offers true Provider Mobility
  6. Improves reporting ability
  7. Increases patient compliance.
  8. By checking with healthcare formularies at point-of-care, generic substitutions and generic first-line therapy choices are encouraged thus reducing patient costs.
  9. Increases patient convenience by reducing patient trips to the pharmacy and reducing wait times.
Useful Aids:








Physicians and Blogging

8:01 AM Nrip Nihalani

Recently I came across this simple piece of advice in an infographic on OnStartups

"To be understood write a Blog, to be ignored write a Business Plan". A simple way to explain why blogging is and will be around.

A blog is basically an online journal wherein you can digitally pen down your thoughts, ideas, opinions and practically anything that you want people to read.

Like a journal, one can write their daily adventures, sentiments, and whatever ideas they want to express online.

Blogs are not a "one size fit all" concept, its more of a "This is what I feel" concept.. Given that, its no surprise that Blogs come in different types, styles and formats depending on the author/s.

Some bloggers write personal stories, some share poems, while some talk about their thoughts and ideas. Some share images, videos and audio, while some are simple text.
Instead of writing texts, some bloggers choose to make their blogs more audio friendly, by publishing their ideas as audio podcasts. This is called audio blogging.

So why should a Physican blog? What can a Physician Blog about ?

Physicians as professionals, learn something unique and interesting everyday. They should blog because they have experiences which are fascinating and stories which are unique; that people want to hear. They should blog so that medical students and the younger upcoming physicians learn from their experiences. They should blog because if they don't, they will be wasting an opportunity that is available today to archive the information they possess.
 
A Physician can blog to educate, to share their vision, to market themselves and their practices, or simply show that they have a human side ...

A Blog can help you build a physicians online presence faster than any other method today. Its the natural extension to a website and due to its sticky nature, helps create an engaging presence

A Few Popular Blogs by Physicians (Just a few  from then ones we read regularly)















Feel free to post your blogs in the comments sections below.
If you'd need any help setting up blogs for yourself, please let us know. We'll be Happy to Help


Happy #hcsm via @TechnicalDr and @nrip

Physicians on Facebook - Do's and Dont's for #hcsm

4:13 AM Nrip Nihalani

So finally Social Media has hit the spot with doctors. Its the first form of technology which Doctors have adopted worldwide on their own( without pressure, incentives or kickbacks.)

Recent statistics show that while 87% of the physicians surveyed reported using Social media for personal purposes, a significant 67% also claimed to be using it for Professional use. Social Media has ushered healthcare into an exciting world of free expression and multi faceted communication

There have also been some unfortunate cases coming to light, where doctors have been penalized for overdoing it on Social Media. Also 45 % of the organizations surveyed claimed to have no policy for Social Media. In this article we'll look at some do's and don'ts for Physicians so that they can use Facebook safely and not let it cause legal problems for themselves in the future.

1. Don't talk about your Patients - Talk about yourself, your cases, your peers ... But don't talk about your patients. Their privacy is protected by law ...

2. When you talk about yourself, your cases and your peers, make sure you are not identifying your patients

3. Dont practice medicine from inside Social Networks. Avoid the common traps of responding to medical questions.

4. Try to avoid getting drawn into negative discussions on a public forum. On facebook you can hold a private discussion with a colleague on "How you feel your hospital needs to improve ?" in the privacy of personal messages and chats ... Avoid this on your wall..

5. Try to create a facebook page for yourself or your practice. With this in place, you can avoid having to accept friend requests from patients, redirecting them instead to like your page.

6. Dont post objectionable content. Physician or not, inebriated pictures and vulgar comments are not cool. Even if they seem to be for a particular phase in life.

7. When something objectionable is posted, accept it , apologize for it and remove it.

8. Set your Privacy Settings on various networks appropriately to safeguard your information and content. This helps you protect yourself when Rule No 1 is crossed.


DO have fun, be transparent and DO voice your views. DO  provide tips on where to gain trustworthy information online and offline , DO make connections but make sure you follow the above 8 points.

Happy #hcsm via @TechnicalDr and @nrip

N.B A Wonderful Article with Do's and Don'ts for Nurses using Social Media are available at http://www.nursezone.com/nursing-news-events/more-news/The-Dos-and-Don%E2%80%99ts-of-Social-Media-for-Nurses_36754.aspx