Radvocacy Meets the Digital World

Sharon L. D’Souza, MD, MPH, Vice President of the Oklahoma State Radiological Society (OSRS), contributed this piece.

Did you know that a French physician and musician created the first stethoscope? In 1816, René-Théophile-Hyacinthe Laennec adapted his skills at carving wooden flutes to listen to the chest.

We physicians are an innovative, highly adaptable bunch. We’ve HAD to be, to effectively address our patients' needs within the ever-changing climate in which we practice.

“The only constant is change” —Heraclitus.

We must change in kind.

In our increasingly digital world, where information (and misinformation) is spread with the click of a button, it is crucial that we physicians are present in the spaces where patients are, to be available to both educate and advocate.

In 2023 the Oklahoma State Radiological Society was awarded the American College of Radiology Association® (ACRA®) Scope of Practice (SOP) Fund to support our goal of engaging our members and empowering them to educate and advocate for our patients and our profession. As a first step towards achieving these goals, we focused on a project to establish a digital presence for our society and create our first official webpage.

Our website includes basic information about scope of practice geared toward patient education. We offer numerous key resources in various formats to aid our colleagues as they fight their own scope of practice battles. This includes academic articles, videos, podcasts, graphics, and charts. Additionally, we have established a blog and plan to debut several webinars in the next few months. We aim to provide our members with the tools to effectively communicate with legislators and do what we can to promote good healthcare legislation focused on patient safety and high-quality care. We also aim to promote collaboration between OSRS members and further facilitate the exchange of information with our members-only forums.

In the 2 months that our website has gone live, we’ve been pleasantly surprised with the amount of traffic. Many blog posts have had well over 100 views, with one in particular reaching over 700!

This project is a prime example of how just one radiologist and just one small state society can create a ripple effect that spreads FAR beyond a single person’s reach. As you can see from the analytics and map included below, in less than a month our content has reached FIVE continents! I’ve been to Antarctica and, with Wi-Fi essentially nonexistent, no one’s going to be setting up a reading room there anytime soon — we’re justifiably happy with five out of six continents. Here’s hoping we reach South America next week! Perhaps more pertinent to our specific state-level goals, when Oklahoma’s legislative session starts in January, we’ll be able to reach members with our legislative alerts and calls-to-action as we continue with the next phase of our of plan.

We’re tired of playing defense. Now? We’re ready to flip the script and try our hand at offense. Join us as we adapt to radvocacy in a digital world for our patients, our specialty, and our profession.

  

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