Twitter has been called a stupid, silly, time-wasting folly,  but I think it is a way to connect. For the uninitiated, Twitter is an application used by roughly 4-5 million people for posting information in 140 character increments. You search for people or topics, listen to what is being said or "tweeted", then add your two cents.

The connection can be one-way (a broadcast) or multi-way (a conversation).

This following list is not a How-to, but rather an answer to the question "Why would a doctor (or any medical provider) use twitter?"

1.  Foster Doctor-Patient Communication
Ted Eytan thinks that private twitter networks could encourage timely physician feedback. 
Let your patients ask questions about common symptoms. Admittedly, this is not for "I have chest pain" symptoms. This works best for symptoms like "my knee hurts when I do deep squats".

Twitter may be useful as a daily/weekly reminder to patients with chronic conditions. For example, an allergist can remind his patients with allergic rhinitis of the high pollen counts in late June. Or a cardiologist can text his patients about the findings of a new study.

2.  Share the esoteric
Broadcast odd stuff that laypeople would find interesting.
There is a reason why shows like ER and House have a following - us mortals love the voyeur aspect of being in on life/death situations. Share a little bit of that. Don't get too Grey's Anatomy on us... leave out the extra-marital sex.

3.  Tweet Medical Conferences
One of the doctors on twitter, @ruraldoctoring, attended the Care of the Hospitalized Patient Conference in San Francisco and live tweeted it.
Here is how to live tweet a conference.


4.  Hang in the virtual doctor's lounge
Network with the other twitter docs and talk about stuff in the healthcare industry. Below is a tweet-exchange where docs discussed the evolution of medicine as it relates to the clinical exam and radiology procedures. The oldest comment appears at the bottom. The doctor's twitter id displays at the beginning of the comment. (an id followed by the @ sign indicates to whom you are replying):

  ruraldoctoring @drval I was humiliated on principle in Neurology. But our attending was AMAZING. Watching him find the lesion was like magic. 
  drval @ruraldoctoring My neuro profs loved to play “where is the lesion?” We had to figure it out by exam. Then humiliated if the CT was different 
  ruraldoctoring @scanman Now that we have CT & MRI and must order them to verify physical dx (medicolegal), most of us don’t bother. Except @Bongi1. 
  ruraldoctoring @scanman I had a Neuro attending who trained during the era of pneumoencephalograms. He & his cohort could dx everything on exam alone. 
  ruraldoctoring @scanman True. Only sad thing is the era of the great physical diagnostician is becoming extinct, imho.      
  scanman Actually, the discovery of xrays brought medicine out of the dark ages faster than the acceptance of germ theory.      
  scanman @ruraldoctoring Radiology has been dragging most of medicine into the 21st century. But the other specialties won’t acknowledge that.


5.  Influence Healthy Behaviors
Here are some ideas:
Pulmonoligist tweets about smoking cessation and/or dangers of smoking.
Orthopod tweeting safe ways to exercise for people with arthritic knees.
Cardiologist tweeting low-cholesterol diets or foods.

6.  Show the human side
Tweet about your family, your likes, dislikes, what makes you happy/cranky.
Managed care moves us through the doctor's office so fast we don't get a chance to peek at the person behind the stethoscope - get out there and tweet it. Before my first son was born I used to wait in my obstetrician's office and look at the zillions of photos he displayed of his wife, his wedding day, his four kids. It made him more human to me and I liked him for it.

7.  Conduct informal polls
These can run the gamut from patient compliance issues to what types of phone systems other physician practices use. There are literally millions of twitterers. Poll results may not be scientific, but they will make you think.

8.  Expand your Journal Club
On December 11, 2008, another twitter doc, AllergyNotes, used his cell phone to send text messages to Twitter as his Journal Club progressed at Creighton University. Updates were followed in real time by fellows at LSU in Shreveport, some residents at the Cleveland Clinic, and his 309 Twitter subscribers.  Read the entire post.


9.  Search for Employment
This is a generic use, but hey, doctors need to find work, too.
Twitter is a wonderful tool for posting a job/looking for a job/researching a job/networking for a job.

If you would like information about getting started on twitter, my favorite twitter expert, Darren Rowse, has oodles of it.