NEW ORLEANS – It’s time for more pediatricians to step into the digital world.

Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, and direct e-mail to patients are nothing to be scared of, according to Dr. Todd Wolynn. In fact, if your practice isn’t connecting with families over the Internet, competitors are, he said at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

"Pediatrics is rapidly changing, facing threats on all sides," said Dr. Wolynn, a pediatrician in group practice in Pittsburgh. "When I started, I did everything for my patients, from NICU visits to inpatient care and house calls. But our practice size is shrinking. Now most general pediatricians just see outpatient, sick calls, and well calls. There’s even increasing competition for those from urgent care facilities, and even clinics in retail stores and pharmacies."

Before the age of constant connection, pediatricians were part of an extended family centered on the patient and parents, and sometimes grandparents as well. "It was a trust-based relationship based on ties with several generations," he said. Now, young "Generation Y" parents are likely to pay more attention to their virtual friends than to their real parents, Dr. Wolynn said.

"Your target audience is GenY. These are the parents making decisions now, and if you don’t know them, you will quickly become meaningless and fail to reach their children," he said.

Connectedness can be a double-edged sword. "It’s not just Facebook. It’s like Facebook on steroids," capable of generating medical myths so entrenched they become almost impossible to expunge. On the other hand, Facebook and its "ADHD relative" Twitter, can spread positive feedback about your practice like never before.

For the pediatrician who’s open to it, this paradigm shift can be a grand moment of expansion. "Now, 50% of our new patient visits are related to some sort of social media. This is where you can really begin to grow your practice."

He offered some tips for getting started:

• Start slow. "Don’t waste the time if your parents aren’t interested. Do a simple paper-and-pencil survey in your office. Find out if people are interested in e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, or a Web page for your practice. Once you figure that out, you can target your efforts," Dr. Wolynn advised.

"Your target audience is GenY. These are the parents making decisions now, and if you don’t know them, you will quickly become meaningless and fail to reach their children," Dr. Todd Wolynn.

• If you can afford it, hire someone to create your Web page. It should be full of colorful graphics, easy to navigate, and constantly refreshed with new offerings – blogs, conversations about seasonal health issues, links that allow parents to "meet" staff, and even general information about the larger community. "We have even added a jobs page [with openings at our practice] for parents, and a link to the local center for breastfeeding."

• Consider video. "In 2012, 50% of Internet traffic was driven by video. GenY wants to see it – not read it. We use YouTube as a way of introducing our doctors. We do pay someone to do the videos, but the investment pays for itself," Dr. Wolynn said. Videos introducing our physicians are especially popular with parents. "You can offer general parenting tips as well, not just medical information." Dr. Wolynn said a video he did on "five places to cool off for free" in Pittsburgh was one of the most popular on the site.

• Allow parents to ask general questions and to expect a timely response. "It has to be clear that this isn’t intended for emergency use, and you do need to vet the information you provide. But it’s perfect for general things like, ‘My baby has a fever – what can I give?’ This can actually start taking away some of your triage nurse’s calls. Other parents will jump in as well, responding to the post," he said.

• Don’t simply wait for families to come to you – push your information to them. "They can make an agreement, and your information will come to them in their preferred media," he said.

• Be clear with staff about the site’s use and limits. "You don’t want your staff posting things like, ‘We were really overworked today.’ They can say things like that on their own site – that’s their right. But not on the practice site. We have never had a negative employee comment posted," Dr. Wolynn said.

• Consider privacy laws and seek advice if you need to. It’s always best to err on the side of caution when parents ask specific questions. "We have someone monitor the site. If something acute comes up, we call the person as quickly as possible," he said. Patient privacy law for Internet communication is "evolving as we go along. We’ve talked to our lawyer and been told that ‘precedent on this is being set daily,’ " Dr. Wolynn noted.

He said he had no relevant financial disclosures.

Set Your Sights on an Online Practice Site