Social media and the AAHPM/HPNA Annual Assembly

by Christian Sinclair, MD

We have come a long way from 2009 when we first had a score of people live tweeting the Annual Assembly.  Whether you are here in Philadelphia or back home keeping the service running while your peers are here, it is easier than ever to get interact with all the great people who care about our field.

If you are looking for just the highlights, look no further than Twitter.  You do not even need to have a Twitter account to make good use of the hashtag #hpm15 (but it sure helps!).  Just go to twitter.com and enter #hpm15 in the search box and you will find the top tweets, pictures and info about the meeting. If you ever feel you just don't get Twitter, go read Staci Mandrola's post from Monday about how she finally gets it, after 5 years of reluctance. This week is a great opportunity to see what the potential of Twitter as an organizing tool for disseminating goo information.  And after the conference you can join us for #hpm chat on Wednesday nights!

This year we are trying an experiment which may appeal to those of you who are more Facebook friendly than Twitter terrific.  If you go to the Pallimed Facebook page (which is a really fun place to be BTW), and click on Events you will find the AAHPM/HPNA Annual Assembly listed.  Here you can post about a session you went to and in the comments below that post, you can start conversations with people who went to that session, or who are interested in the topic.  If it becomes popular, we will take what we learn and share it with AAHPM and HPNA and think about doing this in the future officially.

Now some of you may be thinking this social media stuff is for the birds, yet you may be feverishly writing notes to bring back to your colleagues back home.  If you do a write-up of the big lessons you learned, consider sharing it more broadly. We would love to see what you wrote and we may publish the best ones we see here on Pallimed!

And lastly, if you are in Philly, please consider coming to the Annual Pallimed/Geripal party Thursday night and meet some of the writers of the websites.  It has always been a great night. If you see any of us during the Assembly, please come up and say hello and get your Pallimed sticker for your badge.

Christian Sinclair, MD, FAAHPM is a palliative care doctor at the University of Kansas, editor of Pallimed and a fan of Philly cheese steaks and hoagies.