Hospice and palliative care doctors’ mainstay is making the
most of time — theirs and their patients’. And communication is
a core value. So it’s no surprise the academy successfully has
harnessed social media to make the most of both.
A Core Value
At one time, the social network of AAHPM consisted of doctors gathering at a family-friendly YMCA camp in Colorado to
compare notes and needs. There may have been a prairie dog
in your room, Storey says, but there were doctors from the
United Kingdom, Canada and Taiwan to talk with at dinner.
One by one, doctors found each other, inspired by helping patients through their darkest days. And so began the
Academy of Hospice Physicians in 1988. E-mail still was in
experimental stages, so these connections were pursued, not
casually clicked. Two decades and a name change later, there
are 4,100 AAHPM members — 80 percent of them physicians, with students, residents, nurses and chaplains comprising the balance.
The online world proliferated during the same period; having e-mail now is as common as having a doorbell. Hospice
and palliative care doctors’ mainstay is making the most of
time — theirs and their patients’. And communication is a
core value. So it’s no surprise the academy successfully has
harnessed social media to make the most of both.
“We discovered social media at a time when we had
the urgent need to get the word out about this profession,”
AAHPM CEO Steve Smith says. “We’re a young medical spe-
cialty, slightly innovative and forward-thinking, so our group
gravitated pretty quickly toward those vehicles.”
The academy created a Facebook page in late 2008 and
a Twitter account in 2009, coinciding with and focusing on
its annual meeting. AAHPM uses both social networks to pro-
pel useful professional information — articles and legislative
updates — to about 1,700 followers so they can focus on
patients and still possess cutting edge medical knowledge.
About one post in 10 might be about academy business;
many are nods to the profession’s placement in media stories.
Two years ago the academy joined LinkedIn and has more
than 400 members connecting there.
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Pall-what?
People whose quality of life could be bolstered by palliative care don’t
often know what it is. Mention “hospice” and they often think someone is about to give up on them. Spread the word, palliative medicine
physicians say, that there are doctors whose job it is to provide comfort, not just cure. And we’re all going to know someone — or be that
someone — who needs both.
Palliative care is a medical specialty that focuses on improving patients’ quality of life by managing pain and other distressing
symptoms of serious illness. This attention is provided by a team of
physicians and caregivers who focus on physical, emotional, spiritual
and family support, as well as decision making. Palliative care helps
patients and their families better understand their conditions and
choices for care, and helps improve their ability to tolerate medical
treatments.
Hospice is palliative care for patients in their last year of life.
Hospice care can be provided in patients’ homes, hospice centers,
hospitals, long-term care facilities or wherever a patient resides.
