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"I believe we're approaching a
new era. We're on the cusp of hopefully taking a step where the traditional M&M conference can be
expanded to a global scale," he said.
Social media has both its benefits and concerns, with one benefit
being its expanded reach around the
world; one concern is, with the
expanded reach, those without adequate training or experience might
enter the space as authorities, Dr.
Arroyo said.
"I don't think that opening up
that process to everyone is beneficial. I think it might actually be
counterproductive. Figuring out
mechanisms for who should or can
participate is one of the issues that
comes up," he said.
Social media has been especially
beneficial, Dr. Oetting said, in helping promote the "just in time" educational approach that has become
popular with residents. He said the
approach provides two to three
minutes of directed education. For
instance, if a surgeon or resident is
looking to implant or learn how to
implant a Malyugin ring, he or she
can go online and watch several
videos of it being implanted.
"It's clearly the way [education
is] going," Dr. Oetting said. "There's
too much to learn for our residents—
there's too much to learn for all of
us, really. You can't waste time with
intellectual inventory that's not useful. You can't burden yourself with
that."
He said when surgeons need
more educational assistance, they
Sites of interest
• www.EyeRounds.org
• cataractsurgeryforgreenhorns.
blogspot.com
• www.bidmc.org/Centers-andDepartments/Departments/
Surgery/Ophthalmology/
For-Healthcare-Providers/
The-Endoscopic-View.aspx
• eyetube.net
can seek it online through peer
videos and commentary that presents information about surgical
issues they are encountering.
"Now what you can do is, the
night before you're going to use a
new lens or a new instrument, or [a
procedure] you haven't done in a
while and you want to refresh yourself, you can find this 'just in time'
little pearl of information," he said.
"There's so much content available
now along those lines that it's
changed everything."
How to get involved
For physicians interested in taking a
bigger part in social and digital
media, Facebook or video-sharing
sites are a good place to start, Dr.
Oetting said. While it takes work to
record a video in the operating
room, edit it, and upload it onto the
internet, the effort is worth it, he
said.
"If you put a nice video online
that is narrated and people think it's
worth two or three minutes of their
time to look at it, oftentimes they'll
comment and then everybody gains.
I think that's the coolest thing about
it—that you can learn yourself and
you can help others to learn," he
said.
Dr. Arroyo said that one of the
biggest incentives for him in running "The Endoscopic View" is that
editing his videos has made him a
better surgeon.
"It provides important feedback
for me, which I think has led to me
making better decisions and having
better results," he said.
Dr. Oetting said that
the American Academy of
Ophthalmology and ASCRS forums
also can be excellent places for
surgeons to enter into the social
media space, taking part in discussions there, and sharing pearls and
tips. In addition, posting videos
on Eyetube or YouTube can be
helpful, he said.
Another idea is to start a blog,
an easy-to-do-process through blog
hosting websites, where surgeons can
directly reach an audience on their
subspecialty or interest.
"Let's say you encountered some
interesting complications with the
femto-laser and you want to have an
unbiased forum about that," Dr.
Oetting said. "That would be a nice
thing to start a blog on. You could
start writing about your experiences
on that [while] other people are
going through the same thing, but
maybe you're six months ahead of
the learning curve, and you can help
people. I think if you do it because
of a desire to educate, a desire to
help, it will succeed." OB
Editors' note: Drs. Arroyo and Oetting
have no financial interests related to
this article.
Contact information
Arroyo: jarroyo@bidmc.harvard.edu
Oetting: thomas-oetting@uiowa.edu
October 2013 • Ophthalmology Business
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