The Doctor Will Tweet With You Now

What is an oncologist’s role on social media? That is the question Deanna J. Attai asked herself when she set up her first Twitter and Facebook accounts back in 2010.

“There weren’t a lot of breast surgeons on social media,” says Attai, the assistant clinical professor of surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the president-elect of the American Society of Breast Surgeons. “And the ones that were there were talking amongst themselves and not necessarily engaging with patients.”

A late-night web-surfing session gave her the answers she was looking for. Browsing her newly created Twitter account, Attai stumbled across two women discussing a friend who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer and was getting conflicting information on how to proceed.

“I sat there watching them a little horrified that these women were online in the middle of the night talking instead of asking a doctor,” says Attai. “So I just kind of butted in and said ‘I am a breast surgeon—is there any guidance I can give you? It was in that moment that I thought ‘now I get it, now I see where my role is.’”

Attai, who interacts with her thousands of followers on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, her blog and other social media platforms, educated other physicians on what their role can be on social media at the 32 Annual Miami Breast Cancer Conference. Her talk was titled “Social Media for Oncologists.”

Obligation to Educate

With a growing number of people turning to social media for medical advice, it appears to be more important than ever for physicians to be contributing to the conversation.

“When the patients are left to talk amongst themselves they get so much wrong information, or information that doesn’t apply to that patient,” says Attai. “One of our responsibilities as physicians is to educate.”

Patients turn to social media because they do not always get the information they need from their doctors, explained Attai. This could be due to any number of reasons, including that patients feel too intimidated, they don’t know what questions to ask, or they don’t getting enough time with their oncologists to ask them.

The plethora of information on social media about cancer in particular both hurts and helps patients dealing with the disease. While it is beneficial that a patient can inform themselves about treatment options, a lack of understanding about the treatment needs for their particular type of cancer can lead to confusion.

“I’ve had so many patients ask why wasn’t Herceptin recommended for them because they read about it online,” says Attai. “Turns out they had HER2-negetive breast cancer. For us, that is something so basic, but it is not being explained or they don’t have the mechanisms to ask those questions ... so they go online.”

Social media offers medical professionals a platform to clear up some of that confusion much quicker than they could offline.

“The beauty of social media is that all it takes is one little post that gets amplified and before you know it, thousands of people have read it,” says Attai.

Social media is also a great place for patients and caregivers to gather together for support. Oncologists can play an important role in that effort—offering guidance and alleviating fears.

[Read “Lining Up for Online Support"]

Attai, along with two other physicians, runs a breast cancer support group every Monday night known as #BCSM (breast cancer social media) which hundreds of survivors and patients participate in. She suggested others consider similar efforts.

“There are so many patient groups online that would love an oncologist to serve as a moderator,” says Attai. “There is so much need for information.”

Keep in mind that any information shared online should be general, and not specific medical advice, she says.

Patients and caregivers can find more information on using social media during their cancer journeys in "Being Social" from the Winter 2015 issue of CURE.

Adapted from "The Doctor Will Tweet With You Now: Social Media for Oncologists" on OncLive.com.