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CHICAGO - For men physicians, the professional perks of networking on social media, like being asked to give a talk, are abundant, a new Northwestern Medicine study reports.
For women physicians, the benefits are far less plentiful, the study found.
What s more, women physicians are more than twice as likely to be sexually harassed on social media than men physicians, according to an earlier study, published in January, of this same group of study participants.
The findings mirror the struggles women physicians face in person when trying to advance their careers, said first author Nicole Woitowich, research assistant professor of medical social sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
Northwestern Medicine has been distributing the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to affiliates since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration first issued its emergency use authorization on Dec. 11, 2020. Among the first to receive the vaccine are Feinberg physicians and students.
The Pfizer vaccine uses mRNA to create an immune response against the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. The immune system generates “tools” to fight the virus, teaching the body to defend itself in case of another infection. To do so, the mRNA vaccine gives instructions that help the body produce the proteins ordinarily found on the virus causing COVID-19. While these proteins are harmless, they resemble the virus enough in order to trigger an immune response the body is able to remember and replicate. But to reach full effectiveness, one must receive a second dose three weeks later.
Written by James Kingsland on January 12, 2021 Fact checked by Catherine Carver, MPH
A survey reveals that rape and death threats were among abusive messages sent to doctors on social media, while 1 in 6 female respondents reported receiving sexually harassing messages.
Westend61/Getty Images
A first-of-its-kind survey queried medical professionals who are active on social media about their experience of online abuse.
The results indicate that 1 in 4 doctors have experienced “personal attacks.”
Among female medical professionals, 1 in 6 report experiencing sexual harassment on social media.
The researchers behind the survey, which appears in
JAMA Internal Medicine, have called on medical institutions to put plans in place to deal with online harassment of healthcare providers.
Physician Harassment Common on Social Media, Study Suggests medscape.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from medscape.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.