American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine May 2018 - 3

President's Message
Social Media: A Powerful Tool When Used
Appropriately?
Social media has completely changed our culture and way of life
in a relatively short time frame. It's hard to imagine that at one
time, phones only made phone calls, cameras were needed to take
pictures, and awkward blind dates were your first chance to check
out potential mates.
Even in just the past 3 years, many of my colleagues have moved
away from thinking Twitter was for chatting about breakfast to
realizing that Twitter is an important part of providing high-quality
patient care. As ASRA Board Member Ed Mariano, MD, wrote in
his 2016 piece, "Why All Doctors Should Be on Twitter," "Twitter
provides an invaluable resource for conversations across the
globe, finding and disseminating research, and enriching the
conference experience." Dr Mariano provided several examples of
the power of social media, including the fact that "highly tweeted
articles are 11 times more likely to be cited by future publications
than articles that are not tweeted." That means 11 times more
awareness of data that may be critical for the improvement of
practice.1
ASRA uses social media to
facilitate information sharing,
and the best example is probably
during our annual meetings
and workshops, where the
conversation can happen during
the talks and even involve
those who aren't present. The
conversation continues long after
the meeting as well, and ASRA
publishes a transcript of the Twitter hashtag feed on its meeting
page. Each ASRA annual meeting has surpassed the previous
one in the number of Twitter impressions. ASRA's members have
even studied the effect of this social media activity, culminating
in journal articles on the subject.2,3 Six weeks before our 2018
World Congress on Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine, the
#ASRAWorld18 hashtag already had nearly 2 million impressions.

The ASRA News has a popular
problem-based learning
discussion feature in which a case
scenario is shared on Twitter and
people are encouraged to weigh
in on how they would manage a
patient's care. Later, the results
are summarized along with
opinions of selected physicians. By
having these kinds of discussions,
albeit virtually, we can learn from
one another, expand perspectives,
and raise awareness.

Asokumar Buvanendran, MD
ASRA President

Social media also gives us a
chance to just talk about ASRA. Where you used to have to write an
e-mail or make a phone call, you can now post to @ASRA_Society,
which then helps anyone else who thought it but didn't say it.
With all of its benefit for our ASRA members, we also have to be
cautious about social media, just as we must be cautious about
all of the technology attacking our senses throughout the day. For
starters, it tends to make us
feel things are more urgent
than they really are. In 2013,
Dr John Mandrola warned
doctors on KevinMD.com that
although technology moves at
a fast pace, we must remember
the permanency of digital
media. "You are a doctor, not a
journalist," he wrote. "You have
time."4

"By having these kinds of
discussions, albeit virtually, we can
learn from one another, expand
perspectives, and raise awareness."

ASRA promotes the use of social media to provide value for our
members, including Facebook Live discussions from the exhibit
hall and live chats with designated hashtags during specific
sessions. A team of social media power users is assembled for
each meeting to give attendees suggestions of who to follow
throughout the meeting. Informal meet and greets in the exhibit
hall provide a way for participants to meet-and often they do so
as if seeing old friends again, despite having never been in the
same room before. We understand the importance of providing
value for your membership to ASRA, including through social
networking such as this.

Psychology and sociology experts have studied extensively the
effects of social media on mental health and the relationship
between reward centers in our brains and positive or negative
responses to posts and notifications.5 Facebook itself shared
research in December 2017 indicating that active users had worse
mental health than average and finding a connection between
technology use and teen depression. However, that same report
cited examples of studies that found a correlation between
improved mental health and social media, indicating that more
research is needed.6
For a busy doctor carrying around a cell phone that is constantly
alerting him or her to new messages, reminders, Twitter chats,
likes, followers, breaking news, and more, social media may be just
another factor contributing to physician burnout. The constant need
to be plugged in can take a toll on anyone, with smartphone addiction
becoming a real condition and a National Day of Unplugging held
each March aimed at helping all of us deal with that condition.

American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine
2018

3


http://www.KevinMD.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine May 2018

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American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine May 2018 - 2
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http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/asra/18-04
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http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/asra/16-2
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/asra/16-1
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/asra/15-4
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/asra/15-3
https://www.nxtbook.com/allen/asra/15-2
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https://www.nxtbookmedia.com