Posts Tagged ‘SocialMedia’

Innovation Opportunities Abound

June 16, 2011

A new conference has been announced by the NIH: Crowdsourcing: The Art and Science of Open Innovation. Speakers incude Tim O’Reilly and ” will focus on the key aspects of this new approach that include: how to identify problems that can be solved through open innovation; how to communicate a scientific problem across disciplines.”

Another open innovation opportunity has been recently announced called Merit Awards which is offering $50,000 on the topics of citizen engagement, defense, emergency response, entitlement reform, work force management and motivation, back office operations, results achievement and waste.

Another opportunity is a developer community called TopCoder “revolutionizing the software design and development process by tapping in to our unlimited global community.”

Will open innovation become the primary source for new ideas and products/apps in the future?

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The Healthcare Social Media Landscape

June 2, 2011

Here is a slide show I created reflecting on the different communities developing in this space. Although each emerged on its own, there is certainly collaborative projects and people across these communities and a sense of mutual support. I myself attended the first Health 2.0 conference, then Medicine 2.0 and also part of the e-Patient community. More conferences occur each year both in the US and Europe; two recent examples are TEDx Maastricht which had a health focus and Doctors 2.0 taking place later this month in Paris. Also, the Quantified Self movement is coming to health care as well.

I’d be interested in other’s opinions on this.

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Social Media Moving into Healthcare’s Mainstream

May 2, 2011

TuDiabetes Study

Two articles today demonstrate the growth of influence in social media in the healthcare arena.

The first is a research article about TuDiabetes.org 15,000 members on PLosONE permitting data donation to measure H1c in diabetics to demonstrate a model for cohort and translational science and for use as a complementary surveillance  approach.  This research combined with a recent study of PatientsLikeMe demonstrate the potential power of utilizing patient reported results and outcomes as a research tool.

The second article appears in the Archives of Internal Medicine, “Professionalism in the Digital Age.” Get a copy of the full version if you can. It represents a positive approach to social media for physicians and other healthcare providers while noting some cautions, such as, the difficulty of separating personal from professional in social media. The article does not recommend social media as a means of communicating with patients but unlike some recent articles, does not discourage its use.

“The development of a “dual-citizenship” approach to online social media that separates public and private personae would allow physicians to both leverage networks for professional connections and maintain privacy in other aspects. Although social media posts by physicians enable direct communication with readers, all posts should be considered public and special consideration for patient privacy is necessary.”

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The Rise of Social Media & Participatory Medicine

April 28, 2011

Read my latest iHealthbeat Perspective on this topic. The rise of the ePatient feeds off of social media tools.

Two points I would like to reinforce:

  • every patient with a chronic or life-threatening condition is a member of an online community – they just need to join
  • social media sites are become a routine source of information on managing one’s disease and engaging one’s physician.

The members of the Society for Participatory Medicine are taking the lead in this area. To read a more extensive treatment, read the e-Patient Whitepaper and the works of Susanna Fox, Jane Sarasohn-Kahn and others. This movement is very dynamic and making strides into the practice of medicine.

This opinion piece was inspired by attending TEDxMaastricht – the videos tell the story of how social media technology is enabling participatory medicine.

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Appropriate Use of Social Media in Healthcare Organizations

April 14, 2011

A question during a presentation on social media in healthcare about the appropriate use of social media in patient care areas. Social media can be an effective tool for engaging patients online. But what about the use of social media in patient care areas. Should nurses, physicians and other healthcare providers be online interacting with colleagues or family during active patient care? With busy clinics and busier hospital units and greater concern about patient safety, is there time for what administrators might view as a distraction? Would you want your nurse to be updating Facebook while you are waiting for post-op pain medication? Yet there may be some advantages to direct caregivers utilizing social media. How about the oncology nurse interacting with the cancer patient discharged last week? Or nurses within a hospital exchanging ideas about improving patient safety? Yet stories of abusive use of social media in health care persist.

Clear answers are  hard to come by. Each hospital will need to develop its own policy and implementation of that policy in the use of social media in patient care environments. But when face time with the patient is the highest priority, social media may need to take a back seat.

Slides are here:

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How about a Motivation App?

April 12, 2011

There is some evidence that although there may be a lot of downloads of health related apps to smart phones, they are underutilized. Especially apps for diets, food monitoring, exercise and walking.  Is this a usability problem or lack of complete features?

At one of the breaks during TEDxMaastricht, I had the idea that it may come down to what motivates each person individually. Are you motivated by some kind of rewards (financial or “chance to win…”) or by a social network or by being able to chart your results or receiving regular reminders, etc. What about a chance to win coupons (Groupon integration)?

What about developing an app which would take you through a series of questions to understand what motivates you to exercise or watch what you eat and then matches you with the apps which provide these types of motivations.

If anyone knows of such an app or is developing one, let me know.  If you develop one based on this post, give me some credit. Thanks.

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Social Media at HIMSS

February 27, 2011

Meet the Bloggers: Provider EditionI had the privilege to present three times at HIMSS11  on social media, twice at the social media center and twice on panels. My presentation at the social media center, Social Media in Health IT: Rapid Dissemination and Collaboration was brief but well received.

Social Media Panel | Provider Edition: with David Kibbe and  John Marzano was moderated by Rich Elmore was a great opportunity to interact and compare notes on social media and blogging. It was recorded -

The Meeting the Bloggers panel on Wednesday was well attended and worked well. The talented panel included
@ahier @cthielst @microsoftmd @dleyva08 .

We received a very positive review by iMedExchange titled “To Blog or Not to Blog.”

Thanks to Ceasar Torres and his team who did a great job at the HIMSS 11 Social Media Center. He even got his own interview

Overall, a great experience. Will post more about HIMSS in the next few days.

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First Day at HIMSS 11

February 21, 2011

The two highlights of my day were the HIT X.O track and the Social Media Center.

HIT X.O: Beyond the Edge is a new track to predict and discuss the future of Health IT. Beginning with a presentation of the dozens of statistics and predictions on the future of wireless and ended with the Geeks Got Talent brief demos and judges going at it. The multimedia experience was unique as was the live tweets at the bottom of the dual screens. The next stage of the competition continues tomorrow.

The social media center is expanded this year, with an afternoon of presentations. I was glad to be on a panel with Rich Elmore, David Kibbe and John Marzano this afternoon.  John’s Orlando Health Facebook page and complimentary YouTube channel are a great example of what hospitals can do with social media. We fielded questions  from the audience via twitter – a good range of queries about everything from participatory medicine to risks and opportunities in health care social media. I enjoyed the Social Media Center as a welcoming environment with an opportunity to meet many I follow on Twitter. Thanks to Ceasar Torres and other HIMSS staff in making it a welcoming place.

Tomorrow I speak about my experience with using Twitter to connect with Health 2.0 and health IT colleagues.

The twitter stream at HIMSS was very active today demonstrating a greater adoption by both attendees and vendors.

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Innovation and Social Media at HIMSS

February 11, 2011

HIMSS emphasis on social media has grown every year. From a humble meeting of bloggers at a bar several years ago, to a social media center on the exhibit floor this year. Quite a change. I have the privilege of presenting 3 times at the social media center – providers panel on Monday, a solo presentation,   Social Media in Health IT—Rapid Dissemination and Collaboration, and a meet the bloggers on Wednesday another Meet the Bloggers panel. Plan to join the tweet-up as well and tweet throughout using the #HIMSS11 hash tag.

On the innovation front, I helped plan the HIT X.O track which is new to HIMSS this year. Thinking from the future will stretch everyone’s thinking. Covering everything from futuristic mobile apps to personalize medicine in the next 10 years and military technology in healthcare, each session looks to be exciting.

See you there!

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Using Social Media to Promote Evidence-Based Practice

January 17, 2011

This concept is unique in health care social media. It goes beyond marketing or even engaging customers and on to the real impact on practice. It happens that this may more of a Canadian approach to social media. Freed of much of the health care marketing in the US, tying evidence-based practice to social media goes to the heart of the value of these tools. Perhaps it is also the influence of Cochrane on evidenced based practice in Canada and the UK and EU.

On a side note, check out Spigit, a new company all about innovation. Not specific to health care but if you look toward Canada again to the Innovation Cell.  See also this post from TechCrunch on visualization in innovation. More on innovation soon for a book review on The Myths of Innovation.

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