The Problem

Recently, IMPACT members Dr. Shikha Jain, MD (COO/Co-Founder), Dr. Seth Trueger, MD (Outreach Liaison), Dr. Nicole Woitowich, PhD (Policy Advisor), Tricia Pendergrast (IMPACT Partner) and Dr. Vineet Arora, MD (CEO/Co-Founder) co-authored a study in JAMA Internal Medicine about physicians’ experiences with harassment on social media. Their study demonstrated that 1 in 4 physicians who use social media reported being personally attacked. More specifically, they found that 1 in 6 female physicians reported being sexually harassed on social media.

Jain, Pendergrast, and Arora recently partnered to produce an op-ed, in which they suggested that targeted physicians form health advocacy groups, such as IMPACT, in order to continue their advocacy and online presence and minimize risks of individual harassment. If you are interested in resources of forming an advocacy group, please visit our advocacy toolkit here.

Resources

If you become a victim of online harassment, below are some resources that outline actions to take to protect yourself.

• Shots Heard Round The World: a rapid-response digital cavalry dedicated to protecting the social media pages of health care providers & practices.

• PEN America’s Online Harassment Field Manual: contains an explanation of what online abuse is and sections on how to prepare, respond, practice self-care, and offer support.

• OnlineSoS Action Plans - OnlineSoS empowers people who experience online harassment. They provide easy-to-use checklists, expert-authored guides, and additional resources and recommendations.

• HeartMob, by Hollaback! Hollaback! is a non-profit organization powered by a global network of local activists who are dedicated to ending harassment in public spaces. After its members received numerous insults and dangerous threats online, they created HeartMob to establish a community dedicated to ending online harassment.

• What To Do If You're The Target Of Online Harassment: This article by PEN America program director, Viktorya Vilk, offers top tips and protocol on how to deal with abuse.

• Why You Should Dox Yourself: This article, originally published on Slate, outlines how to reduce your private info footprint online to make it harder for abusive trolls to find your information.

• What to Do When Your Employee Is Harassed Online: This article, orginally published in the Harvard Business Review, outlines how to protect and support staff facing abuse.

• Cyberbullying in Academic Medicine: A Framework for Managing Social Media Attacks: This commentary was originally published in Academic Medicine, a Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

• Block Party App: Consumer tools for online safety & anti-harassment. Automatically hide unwanted tweets & mute the trolls (review later, but only if you want!).