#DocsWithDisabilities and Beyond

Med Twitter, named for the hashtag that indexes it (#MedTwitter), is well-known and much used amongst healthcare professionals. A loose online community of healthcare professionals and students, #MedTwitter hosts diverse content: educational medical “tweetorials;” networking; anecdotes of discrimination experienced; mentorship and mutual support; and casual sociality (O’Glasser et al., 2020). Hashtags, particular accounts, intra-Twitter visibility campaigns, and regular users’ Tweets all have sought to educate users and to change disability-related conversations and practices within medicine.

While some such community support and advocacy efforts are organic, others, like the 2018 Twitter campaign #DocsWithDisabilities, are preplanned… but take on a life of their own (Meeks et al., 2019). Lisa Meeks’ team assembled testimonials from disabled healthcare professionals and students, “capturing commentary on barriers and supports, suggestions for improving inclusion of DWD [doctors with disabilities] in medicine, and their thoughts and words of wisdom for the community” (Meeks et al., 2019, pp. 525–526). The team then shared these profiles through two Twitter accounts alongside the #DocsWithDisabilities hashtag. Quickly, a community formed around the posts and hashtag. Users tweeted their own stories and retweeted the original #DocsWithDisabilities posts. The movement grew organically, with physicians and trainees sharing experiences, forming community, seeking advice, and spawning spinoff hashtags like #DisabledDoctors. Healthcare professional online networking is starting to create inclusive communities that provide emotional support and uplift advocacy work.

Meeks, L. M., Liao, P., & Kim, N. (2019). Using Twitter to promote awareness of disabilities in medicine. Medical Education, 53(5), 525–526. https://doi.org/10.1111/medu.13836

O’Glasser, A. Y., Jaffe, R. C., & Brooks, M. (2020). To Tweet or Not to Tweet, That Is the Question. Seminars in Nephrology, 40(3), 249–263. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.semnephrol.2020.04.003