The Power of Social Media with Dr. Austin Chiang
“We need more people out there, talking about what we do, so that there aren't people out there putting out falsehoods and misleading the public.”
Summary of Episode:
Jenn speaks to Dr. Austin Chiang, the Director of Endoscopic Weight Loss Program and Chief Medical Social Media Officer at Jefferson Health and Chief Medical Officer at Medtronics. Dr. Chiang has been a pioneer using his social media presence to push for an awareness of encouraging more doctors and healthcare professionals to utilize social media to impact more people and public health. We talk about finding identity, and how to navigate the social media world we live in today, whether you are providing content or on the receiving end of information. How we should all try to remember the positive benefits of social media when used correctly and how to empower and advocate for others through it.
Simply telling doctors or other health professionals to use social media is also not enough. There are so many platforms now, that are complicated to use...that has been part of my goal in this Chief Medical Social Media Officer position that I have in my health system, is to motivate and inspire and empower other health professionals to get online.
About Dr. Austin Chiang:
Dr. Chiang is currently an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Jefferson Health (Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals) in Philadelphia, PA, and serves as the Director of the Endoscopic Weight Loss Program, Chief Medical Social Media Officer for the health system, and Chief Medical Officer at Medtronics. He completed his undergraduate studies at Duke University before earning his MD at Columbia University. He stayed for Internal Medicine residency at New York Presbyterian Hospital and completed his GI and bariatric endoscopy fellowships at Brigham and Women's Hospital. He obtained his MPH from the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health before completing an advanced endoscopy fellowship at Jefferson.
Passionate about empowering patients with accurate medical information online, he is one of the most influential voices in the field of gastroenterology across multiple social media platforms including Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and YouTube with over 500,000 followers and over 130 million views. Dr. Chiang has conducted extensive research in social media and is champion of physician presence on social media and is the Chief Medical Social Media Officer of Jefferson Health and Founding President of the Association for Healthcare Social Media (AHSM, @ahsm_org), the first 501(c)(3) professional society for health professional social media use. He has worked closely with all major national GI societies on social media efforts and was 2018’s Healio Gastroenterology Disruptive Innovator of the Year, The Philadelphia Inquirer’s 2019 Influencers of Healthcare Rookie of the Year, and among 2019 Medscape Top 20 Social Media Physicians, and a 2021 GLAAD Media Award Nominee. He spoke at South by Southwest (SXSW) 2021, and his role in social media has been featured by The New York Times, CNBC, and BBC News.
