Bio

Dr. Sridhar serves as Retina Specialist Magazine’s Social Media Ambassador. He’s an associate professor of clinical ophthalmology at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, Miami. 

DISCLOSURE: Dr. Sridhar is a consultant to Alcon, DORC, Genentech/Roche and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.

In previous iterations of this column, we’ve reviewed the cautionary tales tied to today’s social media boom in medicine—privacy concerns, potential medicolegal liability, battling misinformation, protecting the digital landscape from financial pressures, etc. 

Social media also has a place in medicine for physicians to find another home of sorts, a place that can be a refuge from the realities of day-to-day life in the modern health-care landscape. 

Burnout in medicine is a well-known major issue facing doctors today. While ophthalmology tends to be slightly more protected than other specialties, even we eye surgeons aren’t immune to the pressures of an overstuffed plate of reduced reimbursements, increased documentation demands, malpractice fears and burgeoning patient loads. 

 

A haven of sorts

Social media communities may not be the panacea, but they can be helpful to struggling doctors. This has been especially important as more and more physicians become employees rather than employers and interface less often in real life on a personal level, referring to one another’s privately owned businesses. Moreover, as medicine becomes less financially lucrative in an increasingly expensive world, doctors can learn from colleagues how to pursue non-medical ventures. 

For example, the Physician Side Gigs (PSG) Facebook group created by Nisha Mehta, MD, allows physicians to discuss their projects outside of medicine along with financial issues within the field. 

Given the popularity of PSG, Dr. Mehta created a second, larger Facebook group called Physician Community, which features physicians throughout the United States networking and discussing more broad topics with the added benefit of asking anonymous questions. The Physician Moms Group (PMG) is another Facebook social network allowing female doctors to collaborate and share notes on their unique challenges in medicine. 

 

ARF on Telegram

Because Facebook may seem dated to the new generation, young retina specialists have gravitated toward the Telegram smartphone app to join the American Retina Forum (ARF). Founded by retina specialists Mitul Mehta, MD, and Hemang Pandya, MD, ARF offers a haven for doctors to ask surgical and medical retina questions and share cases in a nonjudgmental manner. 

ARF is a terrific example of social media serving not as a replacement for in-person connection but rather as a conduit for it. ARF now hosts a national conference, with the 2024 symposium having taken place in August, where physicians who collaborate every day virtually can finally meet face-to-face and share thoughts in a traditional continuing medical education meeting setting.  

What makes these social media groups sustainable and good for the mind, body and soul? The key word is they’re nonjudgmental. Continuing in this spirit, successful future social media collaboration in retina will need to be inclusive, minimally influenced— or not at all—by financial pressures, positive, and realistic, rather than whitewashing, in their depictions of being a physician in the 2020s. Give your social media group heart, and that’s where you’ll find a home. RS