An interview with Digital opinion leader Dr. Kevin Fernando

CREATION.co CEO, Daniel Ghinn, recently interviewed Dr. Kevin Fernando for the podcast Better Listening for Better Health on how he uses social media to support his work in diabetes. Dr Fernarndo is a part-time GP Partner and GP Educational Supervisor working in the North Berwick Health Centre, with a specific interest in diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Although he is based in a small town on the east coast of Scotland, Dr. Fernando is impacting HCPs all over the world through his work on social media. In this interview, Dr. Fernando speaks about the role of social media in keeping up to date with the rapid evolution of medical knowledge.

Overload of new medical knowledge

Dr. Fernando starts his interview with Daniel by sharing that he recently read an academic paper which stated that in the 1950s the estimated doubling time of all medical knowledge was 50 years. In 1980 that dropped to 7.5 years, and in 2010, it was down to just 3 years. It is currently estimated to be around 73 days, which is incredible, and one of the biggest challenges HCPs face today is staying up to date with this level of information.  Dr. Fernando views social media as a great tool to help overcome this problem. An example Dr.Fernando gives is, if he is unable to get to a congress or educational meeting, he keeps abreast of the relevant information by following other HCPs who are posting from the event and sharing their key take-home messages. Congress is a key time for HCPs to post online and use social media, both as an extension of the in-person conversations they are having and a way to disseminate information to their absent peers.

To illustrate his point regarding the overwhelming level of new information GPs are expected to keep on top of, Dr. Fernando shares a story about a presentation he was preparing for the Royal College of Physicians on managing the diabetic kidney patient. Due to breaking advances and new guidelines coming in he had to rewrite the presentation three times within just a month. Dr. Fernando discovered these advances by listening to HCP conversations on social media.  His presentation was delivered to a live audience but also streamed online to HCPs across the globe.

Although Dr. Fernando specialises in diabetes, the patients at his GP practice are varied, so he relies on HCPs across many specialties who are active on social media to help him stay up to date. Having recognised it is impossible for him to assess every piece of information he comes across, he follows a number of HCPs online who he knows and trusts, to guide him with clinical knowledge. Likewise, he says his peers often rely on him to keep up to date on new learnings in the diabetes space. He believes sharing learnings online should be considered a key responsibility for today’s HCPs. 

Patient conversation

As well as engaging online with peers, Dr. Fernando has recently started to engage patients on social media. With some of the biggest therapeutic advances to date in diabetes happening now, he wants to support patients and caregivers with educational resources and easily digestible information. In his GP practice, Dr. Fernando can only allocate 10 minutes for an appointment, so using social media feels like a natural way to extend patient support. Dr. Fernando shared that he recently started creating a number of patient education videos around a specific diabetes drug class, and is already seeing the impact of this content as other HCPs signpost their patients to it.  He will soon be releasing a new series on lifestyle intervention for type 2 diabetes. 

Challenges on social media

Dr. Fernando recognises there are challenges when it comes to social media. One issue he mentions is time and, as a part-time GP, he appreciates he has more available time than some other HCPs. However, he does believe the benefits of social media outweigh the time investment required, and noted HCPs can still make a tangible impact on patients and colleagues even if they do not post everyday.

Another challenge  Dr. Fernando discusses is the need to ensure the information he shares is reliable. He suggests to maintain reliability, one should read, digest, assess information and only relay data you are confident about. Accessing information from credible sources, such as other HCPs who you trust, can help ensure the information you are reading is reliable. Within our work at CREATION.co, as experts in HCP Digital Opinion Leader (DOL) identification and engagement, we see trust as one key measure in identifying true DOLs. 

The advice Dr. Fernando gives for HCPs starting to engage on social media is to just jump in and do it. He suggests finding both a platform and an area of expertise you are comfortable with and then start to create content. For Dr. Fernando a lot of his content is based on experiences he has in his practice. An example he gives is, if a patient comes in with a question and he is uncertain how best to respond, he will do some research and share his findings with both the patient and his social media audience. 

Partnering with industry

Dr. Fernando believes that open collaboration between HCPs and the pharmaceutical industry can provide high quality education which will ultimately improve the lives of patients. However, he is clear with his audience that no company can ever pay him to say something specific, and his posts are always based on his own opinion and beliefs. It is this level of integrity and credibility that makes Dr. Fernando a true Digital Opinion Leader.

Dr. Fernando is just one of 35,000 HCPs in our Type 2 Diabetes DOL Finder. DOL Finder is an interactive platform which allows you to easily identify, monitor, and understand the most influential eHCPs in the type 2 diabetes HCP community online and rank these HCPs by the impact they have on their peers. Choosing the most impactful DOLs to collaborate with will optimise your HCP engagement. Watch the demo of T2 Diabetes DOL Finder.