You're On Social Media! So Now What?

The value of social media for professionals, including physicians, is now well established.1 Particularly for pathologists, medical specialists relatively few in number, it can serve as a force multiplier in educating patients and families, colleagues, and policymakers about the pathologists' central and critical role in disease diagnosis and patient safety.2As a result of both individual and group efforts, including the College of American Pathologists' promotion of social media in its annual meetings and its educational endeavors, many pathologists have enjoyed social media as a tool for sharing professional insights, educating about disease, and influencing policy. Many other pathologists have enrolled in social media, perhaps out of curiosity or at the prompting of colleagues, but have not fully engaged, or they initially engaged but did not see enough value to follow up. They ask “that's it? So what now?”One reason pathologists have provided for enrolling but not engaging in social media has been the concern about the time commitment involved; however, many pathologists who have similarly tight schedules, responsibilities, and time commitments do actually engage fully. Leaders in other professions and areas of public endeavor are using social media effectively to share their ideas.3–6 How then can those enrolled but not engaged pathologists become engaged in a manner that is more satisfying to them and valuable to patients and families, colleagues, and policymakers? A satisfactory answer has been elusive.Matthew Katz, a physician and social media thought leader,7 has perhaps provided, if not an answer for all areas of social media engagement, certainly a clue for pathologists who are enrolled in Twitter. In a recent JAMA Oncology letter,8 he and his colleagues discuss the maturation of the use of Twitter hashtags. “Hashtags are user-generated tags that can organize and aggregate content on social networks.” 8 Structured hashtags, organizing disease-specific information, have moved from ad hoc development and use to more structured development and use, with their more widespread adoption by stakeholders.8There are more than 8000 diseases,9 and pathologists are directly involved in the differential diagnosis, identification, prognostication, and treatment of most of them. The opportunity to engage, educate, advocate, and influence patients, clinicians, and policymakers is extraordinarily great. The reward is invaluable, moving the reach of pathology beyond the laboratory to a national and international audience. Were pathologists, using structured hashtags, to use Twitter (along with other social media platforms) to further establish their value and knowledge among patients and their families, along with colleagues and policymakers, it is unlikely pathologists would need to again ask “so now what?”