Wednesday, August 18, 2010
How to Make the NEJM Early Palliative Care Article Spread
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| Photo by Flickr user: ttstam -Terence T.S. Tam |
As many of you have heard and will be hearing more about, a great new study establishing early palliative care intervention in metastatic non-small cell lung cancer was published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine. This is a state of the science article for many reasons as Lyle eloquently discussed in the lead post for Pallimed this week. The basics of the study show palliative care teams along with standard chemotherapy can improve survival nearly 3 months along with decreased depression and improved quality of life (QOL) scores.
You will surely be excited as your organization(s) (hospice, hospital, palliative care list-serv, national association, etc.) and peers email each other about it and talk about it in team meeting. We will all chatter excitedly about how this can help promote palliative care beyond the 'death panel' screeds of last summer. Within our palliative focused professional groups this study will echo around until the in-group saturation is nearly 100%.
But what if we did the same thing with our external groups?
What if all the excited discussions landing in our email inbox
and discussed during our IDT actually were turned outward for the public to see?
We need to spread the simple ideas this research demonstrates to a wide audience. And we can do it for nearly zero cost. I will give you some basic ideas so you and your network can do the work of 10,000 billboards with 10 minutes at your computer. I hope you share some ideas in the comments section.Basically the more comments, more 'Like' buttons, more 'Digg' buttons, etc the better!
NEJM site:
- Share the link (with free PDF) instead of emailing the pdf. Why? If NEJM gets a TON of hits for this link:
- Main article: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1000678
- Editorial: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe1004139
- Sharing the link will raise it up to the most viewed on the NEJM site and maybe the NEJM editors will take notice what a popular subject palliative care is and publish more studies.
- Consider using the 'email' function from the NEJM site, also helping boost the 'most emailed article ' numbers, leading to more front page attention.
- Write a letter to the editor with your peers. I'll write one with you if you want. The more letters sent, the more letters published. That makes a lot of people take notice.
- Search your local paper online and comment on the online version
- Follow-up with a letter to the editor (if you get a letter published please email me (ctsinclair@gmail.com)
- Repeat for the major newspapers and magazines (If you send me links to the articles I will continually update this page for everyone else to go comment)
- Email the newspaper article to others helping get it higher on the 'most emailed/viewed' list commonly seen on most news sites.
- Help reverse any misinterpretations by pointing them to Lyle's smart analysis!
- List of Major news sites featuring this research - share them, Tweet them, Digg them, comment on them, recommend them, 'Like' them in only a few short clicks and send me more!:
- The USA Today
- NY Times Article
- Wall Street Journal Health Blog
- LA Times Health Blog - Booster Shots
- Boston Globe Heath Blog - White Coat Notes
- Boston Globe Article
- ABC News/MedPage Today
- Bloomberg
- Miller-McCune (Joanne Kenen)
- MSN Health & Fitness *
- Fox News *
- Washington Post *
- PR News Wire (featuring a statement from the National Hospice & Palliative Care Organization)*
- Go to the Facebook Fan Pages of the NEJM, NHPCO, AAHPM, HPNA, CAPC, Pallimed, GeriPal and others and start clicking the like buttons in addition to leaving a comment about this article. The more we show activity the more people will join in the conversation.
- Share the article on your Facebook Page, or better yet, share the link from one of the Facebook Fan Pages listed above and give them some attention too!
- If your friends share this article, go comment on it, even if you commented somewhere else. Someone in their network who doesn't know you will see your intelligent comment and maybe pass it on because they see people excited about it.
- Make your 'Privacy options' of this particular Facebook post 'Everyone' - This actually helps in search engine rankings to get this article noticed more.
Blogs:
- Get your own organizational blog to write about this article and what it means to our field.
- Go comment on blogs! Thank them for writing about the article, challenge them with some fresh new ideas, talk with other commenters. If a lot of blogs see people come to comment on them from the palliative care world, they might blog about it more. And others coming in will see a smart and passionate group.
- Share the blog posts on Facebook and Twitter and by email. Show others there is a vibrant community taking about important issues to palliative care.
- List of palliative care blogs discussing the article (send me the ones you find.):
- Pallimed: Game Changer: Early Palliative Care for Lung Cancer Patients Improves QOL AND Median Survival
- GeriPal - Palliative Care Prolongs Life
- Medical Futility - Palliative Care Prolongs Life
- List of non-palliative care blogs discussing the article (send me ones you find!):
- db's Medical Rants
- Science Codex
- Freeforall - A health policy discussion
- WeeksMD (reprint of NYT with some commentary)
- Right Truth - Palliative Care Improves Survival?
- American Cancer Society - Dr. Len's blog (via @oncoPRN)
Twitter:
- Yeah I know not a lot of you are on Twitter, but you can still jump on the bandwagon. Try searching for '#NEJM', '@NEJM', '#hpm' or '#palliative' in the next few days and you will see what a lot of people are saying about the study. And them maybe you might want to join in the conversation. If you are already on Twitter, reply to those people, follow them and support them! They may be some of our best allies and advocates. I am sure many of them would appreciate some attention from other palliative care supporters and it helps build our network.
- Read through the Tweetchat transcript from Wednesday the 18th of August to see people talking about what we can do with this research and how to spread the message.
- Here are a list of Twitter Talking Points to tweet that are less than 140-characters highlighting the main results (idea via @jsperber):
- Palliative care + Chemo bests Chemo alone - #NYT #NEJM http://nyti.ms/cNGRDQ #cancer #HPM
- Grndbreaking study @NEJM on Early Palliative Care Metastatic Lung #Cancer improved QOL & survival http://bit.ly/cQH6GU #HPM
- Major results in the treatment of lung cancer. @NEJM http://bit.ly/cQH6GU #hpm cc: @livestrong @AmericanCancer @lungCAN
- Here is a link to the abstract @NEJM: http://bit.ly/bq5r07 The PDF is free and don't forget @DianeEMeier editorial too #hpm
Other ideas:
Digg/Yahoo Buzz/StumbleUpon: If you use any of the news aggregation sites that rely on voting, submit your links to me and I will post them here for other people to vote up! Here is my Digg! account so you can easily Digg up a few articles. In just 3 hours one of these articles got 69 Diggs (clicks of support!)
Slideshare/Scribd: Make your own 5-10 slide slidedeck highlighting why this is important and upload it. Let me know if you do, we may see lots of creativity in how to show it off.
LinkedIn: Share this in relevant groups if you are active here. Go comment and like these articles too.
Digg/Yahoo Buzz/StumbleUpon: If you use any of the news aggregation sites that rely on voting, submit your links to me and I will post them here for other people to vote up! Here is my Digg! account so you can easily Digg up a few articles. In just 3 hours one of these articles got 69 Diggs (clicks of support!)
Slideshare/Scribd: Make your own 5-10 slide slidedeck highlighting why this is important and upload it. Let me know if you do, we may see lots of creativity in how to show it off.
LinkedIn: Share this in relevant groups if you are active here. Go comment and like these articles too.
Come on people let's make this thing shine! And it is up to you to tell your people on the list-serv and in your organization about this post, so you can empower them to do more!
Link to this post: http://www.pallimed.org/2010/08/how-to-make-nejm-early-palliative-care.html
Link to this post: http://www.pallimed.org/2010/08/how-to-make-nejm-early-palliative-care.html
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14 Responses to “How to Make the NEJM Early Palliative Care Article Spread”
August 19, 2010
Thank you Christian- your post provides crucial technical assistance for the most important step after publication of a paradigm-busting study like this one. If the world doesn't know about it, it didn't happen and it will have no impact. Nothing could be more important than having as many of us as possibly can do one or all of Christian's suggestions, especially outside the tribe. Unlike much of what I do all day, speading this news far and wide will have a real and lasting impact on the care of millions. Why? Because public attention and public demand is _the number one_ influence on policy makers, funders, educators, and publishers. No matter how determined, a single person or agency has a tiny fraction of the impact of all of us together.
August 19, 2010
Thank you for this comprehensive list of suggestions for this excellent topic that we can easily use for other timely articles and topics as well.
August 19, 2010
Hi all, just wanted to point out that many major news sources have managed to pick up this story. Don't know how many hits it's gotten and haven't done the twitter/commentary monitoring to see whether the public's interpretation's of the results are accurate, but here are some recent features:
* The New York Times - http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/19/health/19care.html
* Wall Street Journal (blog) - http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2010/08/18/study-advanced-cancer-patients-receiving-early-palliative-care-lived-longer/
* Bloomberg - http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-19/lung-cancer-patients-lived-happier-longer-with-palliative-care-in-study.html
* USA Today - http://www.usatoday.com/yourlife/health/medical/cancer/2010-08-19-endoflife19_st_N.htm?csp=34news
* ABC News - http://abcnews.go.com/Health/News/early-palliative-care-boosts-survival-lung-cancer-patients/story?id=11430813
* MSN Health & Fitness - http://health.msn.com/health-topics/anxiety/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100262415
* Fox News - http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,599805,00.html
* Washington Post - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/18/AR2010081804809.html
* Boston Globe - http://www.boston.com/news/health/articles/2010/08/19/study_shows_cancer_patients_who_start_palliative_care_early_live_longer/
* PR News Wire (featuring a statement from the National Hospice & Palliative Care Organization) - http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/research-shows-patients-may-live-longer-with-hospice-and-palliative-care-101075304.html
- Emily
August 19, 2010
Thanks Emily! Just added them to the main post with a credit to you!
Diane and Carol - Thanks for your comments here; much appreciated. Now we just have to see if enough people read it and acted upon it!
I have seen a few skeptical Tweets, but trending positive for sure.
August 20, 2010
NPR's print coverage, although no air time, yet:
Study Shows Value Of Quality-Of-Life Cancer Care (AP)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129284483
Early End-Of-Life Care Helps Lung Cancer Patients Live Longer (Shots, NPR's Health Blog)
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/08/19/129296352/early-end-of-life-care-helps-lung-cancer-patients-live-longer
August 20, 2010
Do most palliative care clinicians have outpatient practices? If not, where's the data on how many PC doctors participate in ambulatory clinical practices?
August 20, 2010
Christian -- thanks for the great advice. One more social media channel to promote the news that folks may want to use is individual or group Linked In pages.
August 26, 2010
well I "liked" on my facebook page the recent stories on palliative care - Gawande's article, the NEJM study, and the interview on the Diane Rehm show - and the result has been underwhelming silence. Understand that my FB friends are pretty avid, and respond almost always immediately to updates and posts, especially with regard to personal & family photos, baby pictures, etc. I have a feeling they are not as thrilled to read about palliative care as they are about viewing baby photos.
August 30, 2010
At the writing of this commment, according to NEJM's tallies on its "Trends" page, the Early Palliative Care article leads in the "Most Viewed" (for both the last week and the last month), and leads in "Covered in the Media" categories. It is also in the Top 20 for "Most E-Mailed" in the last week.
http://www.nejm.org/journal-articles
August 31, 2010
As a writer who has written a lot about palliative care, hospice and aging in the past few years (and thank you to Pallimed editors for often linking and drawing attention to my work)I want to say these suggestions are crucial. Much of my work is freelance -- and trust me, it's hard to place stories about these topics (I am very persistent!) But when my articles get a lot of "hits" and page views and comments and blog links, editors notice. And then it gets easier to get the next assignment. So the world can read about the work you do -- not just about whatever celebrity has gone into (or out of) rehab this week...
My recent Slate piece on palliative care in the ER got a lot of attention -- more than I anticipated. It was mentioned on blogs as far away as India and Australia, and in outlets as disparate as small health blogs to the Wall Street Journal. And all that was because people clicked "like" or put it on Facebook or emailed the link.
September 22, 2010
According to NEJM's tallies on its "Trends" page, now, more than a month after publication, the Early Palliative Care article remains in the top 20 "Most Viewed" in the last week, and is the 2nd "Most Viewed" in the last month. It is 4th most "Covered in the Media." It is also the 9th "Most E-Mailed" in the last week.
http://www.nejm.org/journal-articles
March 27, 2011
According to NEJM's tallies on its "Trends" page, now, more than a month after publication, the Early Palliative Care article remains in the top 20 "Most Viewed" in the last week, and is the 2nd "Most Viewed" in the last month. It is 4th most "Covered in the Media." It is also the 9th "Most E-Mailed" in the last week.
http://www.nejm.org/journal-articles
March 27, 2011
As a writer who has written a lot about palliative care, hospice and aging in the past few years (and thank you to Pallimed editors for often linking and drawing attention to my work)I want to say these suggestions are crucial. Much of my work is freelance -- and trust me, it's hard to place stories about these topics (I am very persistent!) But when my articles get a lot of "hits" and page views and comments and blog links, editors notice. And then it gets easier to get the next assignment. So the world can read about the work you do -- not just about whatever celebrity has gone into (or out of) rehab this week...
My recent Slate piece on palliative care in the ER got a lot of attention -- more than I anticipated. It was mentioned on blogs as far away as India and Australia, and in outlets as disparate as small health blogs to the Wall Street Journal. And all that was because people clicked "like" or put it on Facebook or emailed the link.
March 27, 2011
Thank you Christian- your post provides crucial technical assistance for the most important step after publication of a paradigm-busting study like this one. If the world doesn't know about it, it didn't happen and it will have no impact. Nothing could be more important than having as many of us as possibly can do one or all of Christian's suggestions, especially outside the tribe. Unlike much of what I do all day, speading this news far and wide will have a real and lasting impact on the care of millions. Why? Because public attention and public demand is _the number one_ influence on policy makers, funders, educators, and publishers. No matter how determined, a single person or agency has a tiny fraction of the impact of all of us together.
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