A day in the life: social media for clinical practice and medical education

Social media and the tools that help us use it can facilitate both medical education and practice

There are many ways in which doctors can use social media at work. The case studies in Box 1 and Box 2 illustrate the potential to receive up-to-date information, and to connect with clinical and educational communities online to discuss application to practice. Many busy clinicians will simply be consumers of online educational content, and for this group the challenge is in being able to filter the vast array of resources for quality and relevance. This challenge is not new — it exists with traditional journal articles and media — but technology offers a new suite of tools to help, and social media is also a rich source of advice on how to use those tools.1,2