Today was the final day of the 5th annual Johns Hopkins Critical Care Rehabilitation Conference. I have been involved with this amazing group from the inaugural conference when I was a PT student at George Washington. See my original “star struck” blog here:
A weekend with the experts at Johns Hopkins, early mobilization in the ICU
Though not self-dubbed, I have been the “Social Media Guru” for the past 4 conferences after attending my first year as a student. This year we have continued to expand our emphasis on the power of social media (notably twitter) before, during, & after the conference to widen our reach to spread the word of #ICUrehab.
For some [like me 🙂 ] or conference team leaders Dr. Needham (@DrDaleNeedham) or Dr. Kudchadkar (@SapnaKmd ) social media may seem like an extension of their life onto a digital platform. For others, it may seem more complicated than a foreign language!
No matter your experience, social media has become inextricably intertwined with most facets of professional life & it is fundamentally changing the way we interact as healthcare professionals.
On the most basic level, Twitter gives healthcare providers, patients, & other interested parties a virtual platform to engage with the greater online community regarding issues in #healthcare. Twitter (& social media in general) encourages two way communication: so not only are speakers disseminating information to the audience, when tweeted they are allowing and inviting you to respond. Think about it, how many times have you had a question for a speaker that you: hold in, hold in …. and then forget?
Twitter’s strong suit is most certainly SPEED, it is the fastest way to disseminate information and get information. Did you know that after the disastrous Sichuan earthquake in 2008, Twitter was used to share first hand info about the quake. It was shown after the fact, that Twitter was FASTER at reporting the earthquake than the U.S. Geological Survey. Read all about that tangent here: Earthquakes!
Finally, of the many (not all covered here) virtues of using Twitter during a conference one often overlooked is the value of #analytics provided after everyone has headed back home. We have partnered with the Symplur Healthcare Hashtag Project which aims to make the use of Twitter more accessible for providers and the healthcare community as a whole. Take a look back at some of the data from the last 3 days:
Of the THOUSANDS of tweets, it is good to know the feelings around #ICUrehab are those of positivity and trust . Being aware of our general impact on the web is a powerful tool !
We can use visuals to get an idea of participants in a twitter cloud:
In the last four days @ICUrehab had over 52,000 impressions (views by people) per day!
But it doesn’t stop there… here are a few more examples of data we can pull after a conference to inform decisions we are making in the coming years.
If you are interested in learning more about early mobilization in the ICU:
Follow: @icurehab and program director@DrDaleNeedham
Search for: #icurehab
For live updates during the conference, information year round on the most recent research, and to engage with the health care community about improving ICU patient outcomes.
- Join the mailing list for updates and other events – send your name and email to: icurehab@gmail.com
- Visit these sites:
A Cup A Day 
just found your blog recommended to me by Katie from https://myroadtopt.wordpress.com/ . She was right to recommend it because my dream is to go to PT school and I am currently learning about blogging and social media. So it’s really cool to see you advocating for Twitter for the profession :))
Hi PTcontender, thanks so much for your kind words. Good luck on your path to becoming a PT. It really is a wonderful profession, I am always so happy to go into work every day 🙂 Never underestimate the value of blogging and being involved in social media, it helped me get my first job.
That’s wonderful! It is obvious that you love what you do and I’m happy for you :)) i’ll definitely remember your advice and never underestimate it. I’m a huge believer in social media recently. Thank you, Cristina!