The Rise of the Social Pathologist: The Importance of Social Media to Pathology

Abstract

Most people reading this editorial are older than 55 years and have the paper version of Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine in hand. You surf the Web for news, perhaps buy a few items at Amazon.com, and exchange e-mail with friends and family. Social media or social networking probably seem best left to high school students. But you have seen its power by watching the demonstrations associated with the Iran election and the stream of user-generated images after the earthquakes in China, Haiti, and Chile. Real-time communication platforms like Twitter and Facebook had spread the word about what was happening within these nations, long before the mainstream media reported the story. The Chinese government, for example, first learned about the earthquake in the Sichuan province from its own citizens using social media. These news stories may have led you to explore Facebook and Twitter, but the idea of opening your personal life—let alone your professional one—to Internet commentary seems perverse and an invitation to disaster. But there is no denying that social media—an umbrella term for the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, and audio—is becoming a force. At one point, Twitter was in the running to become Time Magazine’s ‘‘Person of the Year.’’ Social media is part of Web 2.0, the buzzword that refers to the evolution of the Internet from a passive viewing model (Web-as-information source) to a more personal and interactive experience (the participatory Web). A news story that is delivered online becomes social media if there is a place for readers to comment; the interactive component is the key. Internet applications now facilitate information sharing, interoperability, user-content generation, and collaboration, thereby democratizing knowledge and enriching the user experience. Companies are beginning to use social media as a marketing and customer support tool. As of the end of March 2010, 600 hospitals were actively using social media, including 280 YouTube channels, 382 Facebook pages, 470 Twitter accounts, and 82 blogs. But is there any value for physicians in general and pathologists in particular? Let’s take a look at some of the more popular forms of social media and consider the possibilities for our profession. Pathology 2.0 is a term coined by Keith Kaplan, MD, of the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minnesota) to describe the ability to share and interact with pathology images and content. It points to the increased use of blogs, wikis, YouTube videos, and other social-networking technologies. Pathologists have been slow to embrace the tools of Pathology 2.0. Even second-year medical students, when offered the ability to actively participate in a lung pathology course using a blog and Twitter account, were very tentative. But such teaching experiments presage a time when most lectures will be Webcasts and the commentary will be driven by social media interchanges. Forums and Listservs have been around a long time and the oldest and most active one, PATHO-L, recently surpassed 800 subscribers. There is a mix of useful information along with politics and nonpathology commentary. It relies on e-mail interchanges and lacks the dynamics and rich media experience of Web 2.0. There is healthy give-and-take, with no risk of anything ‘‘going viral.’’ Excellent pathology blogs are available, such as Bruce Friedman’s Lab Soft News (http://labsoftnews.typepad. com/; accessed April 21, 2010), Keith Kaplan’s Digital Pathology Blog (http://www.tissuepathology.typepad. com/weblog/; accessed April 21, 2010), and Mark Pool’s The Daily Sign-Out (http://pathlabmed.typepad.com/; accessed April 21, 2010). All are well established and provide useful pathology news and opinion, with the option to post comments and to be alerted to new posts via Twitter. Pathologists typically have the largest collection of books in the hospital, aside from the library, but there is nothing that inherently connects those texts. That is the idea of a pathology wiki or online encyclopedia. Created Accepted for publication May 13, 2010. From Affiliated Pathologists Medical Group, Torrance, California. The author has no relevant financial interest in the products or companies described in this article. Reprints: Eric F. Glassy, MD, Affiliated Pathologists Medical Group, 19951 Mariner Ave, Suite 155, Torrance, CA 90503 (e-mail: efglassymd@ affiliatedpath.com). Editorial