The media plays a critical role in communication during times of crisis, disaster, and emergencies, broadcasting information to those who need it most. In an effort to combat fear one of the most important steps is to stay informed on updates amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Follow credible sources such as CDC.gov and your national or local public health officials for ways to remain proactive during this time.

Samara Resenfeld, Associate editor, @MDMagazine and @i_digitalhealth. Host of the Data Book podcast.

Samara has developed a history of working in the publishing industry after earning a bachelor’s degree focused on journalism and media production from the West Chester University of Pennsylvania.

The role of Media in health care

All of these health tech conferences that we have including health care including HLTH, HIMSS, Health 2.0, etc, are giving people a place to talk about the things that they’ve done in this space. They may bring up new ideas, use social media, networking, etc. I think that all of that plays a role in the way that we are advancing healthcare because we’re getting the conversations going either online through video content, written content, or tweeting at each other.

Activating patients and individuals to become involved social media

I think a big thing is putting the physicians on social media so that patients know that the information that the reading is true. It’s very easy to see a tweet and think, Oh, my God, we’re all going to get sick from this rare disease or something. If physicians can get on social media, I think that’s the first step in getting patients to use social media. And, I do believe we’re seeing more physicians are starting to play a bigger role via social media where they are using Facebook and Twitter, LinkedIn, we just need to make sure that they’re putting out the right information.

Insights on journalism and in the digital media in the health care space

There’s still a lot more to go based off on what I hear people saying which is that healthcare is a broken system. We have to just make sure that we continue to report the facts, not be biased based on our own opinions. We have to continue to put out news that we think can affect patients and get them more involved in their health.

This interview was recorded at HLTH conference