At a dinner event a few nights ago, I was speaking with a CIO from California who told me that when he travels, he uses FaceTime — an iPhone app that enables users to see each other while they speak — to connect with his nine-year-old daughter.
For a parent who is away from home for a few days, the opportunity to be able to not just hear your child’s voice, but to also see her face, watch her expression as she tells a story, and observe the mannerisms that you would miss during a phone call or a text message, is invaluable.
There’s just something about getting that face time.
On Sunday night during the CHIME reception at HIMSS, I had the chance to say hello in person to many people I had only spoken with over the phone or by e-mail, as well as those I had already met, and I can attest that it is a completely different dynamic when you’re speaking face-to-face.
When you remove the barrier — whether it’s a phone or a computer, people are much more open and trusting, and more willing to share interesting stories. In my conversations, I heard a great anecdote about the early days of CHIME, I heard all about one CIO’s recent vacation (and saw pictures), and I spoke to another CIO off-record about why she left her organization.
And what I’ve found is that meeting face-to-face enables you to establish a deeper level of trust with someone. As a journalist, that means when you do speak on-record, you’re able to dig a little deeper with questions and get answers that are more candid and honest.
The same principle applies to anyone you speak with, whether it’s a friend, a colleague, your superiors, or your staff members. In addition to helping establish trust, taking the time to meet with someone face-to-face also conveys the message that that person — and his or her concerns — matter to you. And when you are able to read a person’s expressions and watch his or her mannerisms, you can get a much better idea of how he or she really feels about a certain topic.
There are, however, times when you have to rely on technology as a method of communication. At the CHIME CIO Forum, one of the keynote speakers, Wendy Sue Swanson, MD, talked about how she uses her blog, along with tools like Twitter and YouTube, as a tool to communicate information to patients. Swanson, a pediatrician and mother of two young children, became motivated to start a blog a few years ago when the parent of one of her patients was hesitant to let her child get a Tdap (tetanus-diphtheria-pertussis) vaccine. The reason? A celebrity had just appeared on the Opera Winfrey Show claiming that vaccines had led to the development of autism in her son (the claim has since been refuted by several major journals).
Swanson wanted a forum to be able to communicate information on subject areas that may not come up during a 20-minute well-child visit. On her blog, Swanson covers topics like vaccine safety (using studies and recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics to back her points), how TV images can affect young children, and tips on purchasing equipment like car seats and bike helmets.
“We can create repositories of information to share with patients later,” said Swanson, who encourages physicians to use social media to get their message out to patients and help ensure that they aren’t seeking medical advice from actresses who claim to know more than medical professionals. Her goal is to use technology and social media to facilitate communication; however, she stressed that although there is a great deal of value in channels such as blogs and YouTube, technology can never replace the human factor.
I couldn’t agree more. You lose something when you don’t have that face time.
Share Your Thoughts
You must be logged in to post a comment.