Spreadable Media is the latest book by Henry Jenkins, professor at the University of South California andparticipatory culture theorist, written together with two digital strategists Sam Ford and Joshua Green.

Know what the fastest-growing demographic on Twitter is? Or how many new members join LinkedIn every second? The answers will surprise you!

Using the power of Social Media, I FREAKED PEOPLE OUT by making them think I knew personal information about them! Join the Vale Nation▻ http://bit.ly/JoinVa...

How Social Media Leads To Social Change [INFOGRAPHIC] (Social Media will one day create social change! http://t.co/YO2CzPVCex)

Social Media Is Driving Higher ROI For Small Businesses Than Last Year http://t.co/5GxxNf97wd

Can social media be used to modernize medical education?  The modern medical education system still uses didactic lectures and objective testing as the main method of education. The traditional “Grand Rounds” has evolved over the years, from a primarily case-based discussion about a patient’s diagnosis (as written by William Osler himself in JAMA in 1910), to a didactic lecture. Some educators and learners in medical education have even questions its relevance as an educational venue entirely.

In order to meet their patients’ and students’ needs, some physicians are embracing social media and applying it to their own learning. In particular, social media has proven a great forum for physicians to connect and share ideas. Through various platforms (particularly the microblogging service Twitter), physicians can build connections with mentors and collaborators at other institutions and in other disciplines.

Since 2011, participants have “live-tweeted” the Indiana University School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics Grand Rounds. Each week during the conference, faculty, students and others create tweets (less than 140 characters, for the Twitter novices) using the hashtag “#IUPedsGrRounds”.

The hashtag functions as an indexing tool, allowing faculty in attendance to provide real-time information about the content as well as commentary. This allows other physicians and interested parties to follow along and providing evidence of a reach beyond just the participants in the room. When broken down into different themes of Research-related, Clinical-related, Education-related, or Advocacy-related, those sessions on Advocacy provided the highest number of “retweets” or comments about the content.

Like most new technology, social media is accompanied by positive and negative consequences, both intended and unintended. Maintaining a professional and informative tone is a necessity to make this type of endeavor successful. Additionally, the benefits of a social media presence are still being undetermined, as are the metrics of success. One certainty is that the connections provided by social media are changing the face of health care; patients are using these platforms to connect to information and each other, and health care providers must do the same to stay relevant.