6 Smart Social Media Tips: How You Can Use Social Media to Get Ahead in Your Healthcare Career

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Mastering social media is important for a successful career in any industry, and healthcare is no exception. There are special challenges when using social media in the healthcare setting, however.  If you share patient information by mistake, you could violate HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. This is the law that protects the patient’s privacy, secures the patient’s medical record, and includes steps for notifying the Office of Civil Rights, or the OCR, when a security breach occurs and the patient’s medical record is illegally accessed.  In light of these considerations, you may be wondering where to start, or how to use social media to further your career as a healthcare professional. Here are six things you can do to invent or improve your social media presence as a healthcare professional:

1. Start a social media account (or several social media accounts).  

You might choose to start a social media account to invent or improve your social media presence in the healthcare field. Some of the most popular and recognizable social media platforms include LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. LinkedIn is popular with many industries, and healthcare is no exception.  If you don’t have a LinkedIn account, you should definitely create a LinkedIn account, as well as an account on Twitter and Facebook for networking purposes, if you don’t already have one. Remember that you may want to create a separate business account, so that you don’t mix the information pertaining to your personal account with your business account.

2. Add anyone you meet.  

Make sure you add, follow, connect with, and friend as many people as you can to increase your professional network.  People from your classes and your professors are great first connections and serve as a great starting point to further your healthcare career.

3. List all the skills you can think of.  

This tip is specific to LinkedIn. Don’t be shy about listing your skills, as well as your educational and career achievements on LinkedIn. Recruiters use those skills to search for good healthcare candidates like yourself, especially when new positions open up, so give yourself credit and include as many of your accomplishments as possible on your LinkedIn page.

4. Follow healthcare businesses and leaders. 

Make sure you add healthcare-related businesses near you, or businesses that you are interested in. You can also follow Avidity Medical Design Consultants, LLC on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, and Reddit, for example.

5. Find things to share.  

Share information relevant to healthcare.  Pick things that interest you so your network can see you are passionate about healthcare.  Make sure not to share anything that can be seen as controversial; remember, future employers may see these posts.  The Avidity Medical Design Blog is a good place to get posts to share; there are many articles on the blog that pertain to a wide variety of healthcare subjects. 

6. Post and share often. 

The more you post and share, the more your name will come up in other people’s feeds, and the more your followers will look forward to new posts on different healthcare topics. These topics may pertain to pursuing a career in healthcare, advancing in the healthcare field if you’re already a healthcare professional, or preventative healthcare tips.

You can use these tips to enhance your social media presence on just about any platform.  In summary, no matter what social media site you choose, just remember these two rules when using social media as a healthcare professional:

  • Don’t share confidential information.  Again, HIPAA violations have serious consequences, including possible financial penalties, up to and including criminal prosecution. Be aware of this and avoid sharing confidential patient information on social media. You do not want to risk violating HIPAA law by posting confidential information about patients.
  • Don’t share controversial information.  This is another reason why you may want to have a professional account separate from your personal one. The information that you share may potentially be controversial from a healthcare treatment or technology standpoint, so you want to be careful about the information that you share.

You can start finding useful information to share by reviewing the articles on the Avidity Medical Design Blog. You may also want to follow the blog for useful, up-to-date, and pertinent insights on healthcare trends. 

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4 Things You Should Know About Virtual Medicine in 2019 (and beyond!)”

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The rise of the digital age continues to change the way the healthcare industry does business in 2019. Whether you’re looking to start a new career in the healthcare industry or you are looking to gain valuable knowledge and insight to further your career, some smart learning can only help. Here are a few things you should know about virtual medicine.

1. Social Media Is Key.

With the rise of social media, most major healthcare companies – and most companies across all business sectors – now know the importance of social media. Whether you are on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube, for example, social media helps you to stay up to date with industry trends, if you are a healthcare professional, or learn about the way surgeries are performed, learn how to connect with other healthcare professionals, or learn how to find a job if you are new to the healthcare field, for example.

2. Apps for Real-Time Online Patient Interaction.

These days, you’ll have to look pretty hard to find a business without – at least – a website and possibly an app. As the digital world evolves, it’s becoming the norm that patients are able to do everything from set appointments to viewing their medical charts all from the comfort of their home. As a medical professional in almost any position, you’ll want to be comfortable working with computers in a digital setting.

3. Telecommuting for Work.

As the cost of technology continues to go down and the percentage of people with access to the Internet goes up, telecommuting for all professions – including healthcare – will continue to rise. For you, it’s great, because you don’t have to dress up and leave home to get paid. For your employer, it’s great, because they don’t need to pay overhead. Avidity Medical Design Academy offers a course entitled, “How to Make Money in Healthcare Working From Home (Full Time!) ,” where  you can learn about careers such as medical coding, medical transcription, medical claims processing, medical writing, healthcare teaching, and healthcare customer service, for example, that allow you to work from home.

4. Online Security and the Future of Healthcare.

Last but not least, as a healthcare professional, you’ll want to be aware of online security and privacy concerns, especially if you’re telecommuting full- or part-time. Whatever your role, you will likely be exposed to private medical history covered by federal laws such as HIPAA. Review our article entitled, “Everything You Need to Know About HIPAA” to learn more about what HIPAA is and what it means in terms of your work as a healthcare professional.

With the rise of virtual medicine, the healthcare industry will continue to evolve, and you’ll want to keep up with the current trends. Visit the Avidity Medical Design Blog for more information on many different topics pertaining to the healthcare industry.