Here’s How I’m Going to Listen

Lakshmi Sivadas
Sep 8, 2018 · 3 min read

I just completed reading over ten posts* on reddit starting from 2013 on various cases of medical malpractice. In some the victims survived, in others they sustained injuries that made it difficult for them to ever live a normal life. Having known some victims myself, I have always been interested in studying this a little deeper.

Reports state that medical malpractice is the third leading cause of death in the United States surpassing respiratory diseases. I’m still not sure if the fact that these people were victims of medical malpractice is an anomaly. Or even why it occurs. So to be honest, I really don’t know what exactly my chosen community for the social journalism program wants, nor, what is going wrong in the system that allows for such errors to take place.

This week’s community engagement class was all about design thinking and listening to our communities. So hopefully, I’m going to have my assumptions about rampant malpractice validated/invalidated pretty soon. There’s no easy way to do this, and my experiment is going to begin with further research on the problem.

  • By reaching out on social media

There are a LOT of people who have been affected by medical malpractice as I had evidenced previously. Many of them have turned to social media groups for advice and support. Groups like Stop Medical Malpractice, Legal Action for Medical Malpractice are two whose members I’m particularly interested in talking to. Other avenues I plan on tapping include Twitter.

  • Trying my luck with legal experts

This one is going to be a reach. But, you can’t learn about medical malpractice without also talking to lawyers who help victims/hospitals with their cases.

  • Meet community leaders

Following Listening Post founder Jesse Hardman’s advice I do think that reaching out to community leaders will be crucial to identifying patterns in malpractice cases. They will let me know exactly where victims share information and the best places to be physically be present at to find out what is happening.

  • Attending medical conferences

If there’s one thing doctors and stakeholders within the medical community never miss, it’s a medical conference pertaining to their field of study. By attending and observing people here, I hope to get in touch with doctors who can tell me exactly where they feel the medical community is going wrong with malpractice and misdiagnosis. This aspect is crucial to me if I am to also help find a solution to the overall issue.

  • Talk to non-profits

I’ve found from the limited “listening” that I already did online that nonprofits are VERY active in this space. The National Medical Malpractice Association, and Sorry Works! are two of them.

  • Start a poll

ProPublica had done this when they reported on a story about attorneys refusing certain malpractice cases. Polling on Facebook communities, Twitter or Instagram would certainly help me get more information especially where NDAs are involved or where victims want to remain anonymous. Depending on the number of participants, it would also help me garner the scale of the situation.

The Challenges

There are three broad challenges that will affect my ability to listen to my community.

  1. Magnitude of the topic: Medical malpractice cases and causes can be varied depending on geography, demography and the type of illness themselves. It would help, as my colleague Ariam had suggested, to identify a particular illness and focus on that.
  2. Non-disclosure agreements: It could prove to be difficult to gain victims’ trust to speak to me especially if they’ve signed an NDA.
  3. Verification: The reason why a Listening Post won’t work for me, and is therefore also the pitfall of my crowdsourced poll, is that I won’t be able to verify any of this information. Crowdsourcing information/opinions/anecdotes also means that there’s always room for manipulation of facts and spread of disinformation.

Lakshmi Sivadas

Written by

Journalist, Grad Student at Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade