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Reach out to your friends and colleagues today who have breast cancer or love someone who does. Very likely news of Shannon Doherty’s passing hit them hard. I learned about it this morning from a fellow cancer survivor via text. As I googled Dohery’s story I learned that she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015, went through treatment for nearly a decade, and, most recently, faced stage 4 disease. As I dug deeper into her story, I found she also had chemo, surgery, and radiation. I wanted to google exactly what type of cancer she had, what protocols she followed, and whether or not she was on endocrine therapy. As if learning her story would help me measure my own risk. In Doherty’s case a lot of that information is out there because she was very open about her story on her podcast, Let’s Be Clear, and, apparently, her social media accounts. For my peace of mind, I had to stop going down the rabbit hole… stop tracking down information about her story. Reminding myself that her experience was her own. Not mine. All of this has left me wondering yet again about the impact of social media on breast cancer patients and survivors. - What are the benefits? What are the risks? - How does social media impact the mental health of patients? And are there implications for their treatments and outcomes? No doubt, this is an issue that transcends breast cancer and other health concerns. It goes to a deeper issue of our tremendous access to information, often filtered through the lens of content creators with individual experiences, biases, and, in some cases, misinformation. I’d love to conduct more research on this issue. Message me if you'd be interested in collaboration. #socialmediamonday #breastcancer #womenshealth #socialmedia #NIH #research
