Social media and health care
I’m not even sure that this qualifies as a blog post. Prior to my being asked to serve as an advisory board member of the Center for social media for the Mayo Clinic I received an occasional request to talk on the subject of social media, health care and social media, and physician social median patient’s social media in general. Now that the Mayo clinic has released their advisory board members, the number of talks that I am being asked to give has increased substantially. This is quite an honor and something I look forward to doing.
BUT…
Who are all these health care social media experts?
I am becoming more and more intrigued.. or is it that I’m more dismayed, every time I receive a phone call from a PR agency or a PR Dir. of a hospital to inquire if I would be willing to give a talk on” social media”.
I imagined (surgical personality again) by now we would’ve moved well beyond this. I am obviously well entrenched within the *echo chamber* that exists — at least on twitter. For the 100 or so active participants in the healthcare social media group — being asked to give a lecture or serve on a panel where the title is social media can be perceived of as being almost comical– – – no insult intended. As a matter of fact, I look at this as one of the goals I am seeking to accomplish as an advisory board member and as an active member of the online health care community— That goal would be educating other members of the healthcare community about social media and the many number of ways it can be utilized to improve our broken, complex health care system.
By now, I would’ve thought that requests for discussions, lectures or invitations to participate on certain panels would be met with a request for a lecture on a far more in-depth the topic. While I am obviously able to elaborate and/or define the subject on-the-fly or as I prepare for the talk (depending on the audience in question)— I am simply puzzled, you could say, that many of the professionals in healthcare, the pharmaceutical industry, and the hospital industry aren’t far more advanced in their understanding of the principles of (and promise of) *social media*. I realize that each of the industries I just mentioned has certain barriers that they need to overcome:
-For physicians there is very little in the way of guidance offered by their specialty societies.
-I also realize that both the pharmaceutical industry as well as the hospital industry is limited to a certain degree by their legal departments.
-This I would attribute to both to unwarranted fear, perhaps naïveté, as well as a failure to fully embrace social media and come up with a set of firm, actionable guidelines for appropriate use.
Am I being too harsh? Am I expecting too much? Have I spent too much time in the echo chamber?
Where does the echo chamber end and the understanding of the rest of the world begin?
Again, I’m not sure this is even worthy of a blog post. It was simply a question running through my mind this morning and I thought perhaps I would stimulate the conversation around this. I welcome your comments.
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Its a good post. if you discount the euphoria, thats where it is getting to. Social Media is just a set of tools for online social interactions. Every vertical has to customize it as they have their own idiosyncrasies. Every vertical or domain or a subgroup within that vertical, will have its own Goals. Goals dictate tools. Tools help decide resources. Resources tell you whether you need outside help. While we see a lot of general “Social Media” discussions and abstracts, people within the specialties have to gear up and learn to promote it customized to their goals and objectives. A general administration skill is customized to a hospital or a pharmaceutical set-up. Same way Social Media promotion has to happen. For that to happen, some of the specialty society people have to become evangelists within that vertical and specialize to train others. I hope my comments are apt and in line with what you had thought.
Great reply… I like the way you tried to portray everyones position in the HCSM ladder… thanks!
First, I was living in the green zone of envy when I would see the world being invited to speak. Self-reflection would lead me to feeling well not yet or I’m do not have enough degrees or my posts and tweets were a bit glib/snarky. Through your eyes I see that perhaps it is less me. But we’ll set my issues aside.
What I think you’ve raised is a more basic view of SMHC. That many if not most have not embraced or accepted. SM is a tactic. It is a simple tool that can drive a lot of heat but not much light. When those who call begin to look at SM as part of a HC strategy specific to an objective I think you’ll see different topics and needs. Anyone can speak to a tactic but few can address the broad and complex needs of a strategy that is tied to important objectives. Those of us zealot like about HCSM need to continue to educate within the framework of broader HC issues and the role for SM within those. Not SM as a stand alone HC solution.
Thanks Mark… I agree with most of your comments. SM needs to evolve to become a part of the solution. The surgeon in me thinks we are evolving too slowly… but my *friends* keep pointing out how *far* we’ve come. Plus, many of the start ups I am privileged to work with are trying to define the needs and the strategy — which could enable to hcsm crowd to *break out* … we’ll see???
It’s a fair comment but I think out in the real world understanding of the role of social media in health care really is not that far in advance and being in the “echo chamber” with other converts, it’s easy to forget that.
You have to remember that many are struggling – within a fairly regulated environment – to understand the true value of social media in improving the deliver of health care and its outcomes. These people know social media is out there but they still have no sense of how it could be relevant to their own work or environment.
Which is why I think there is still a valuable role to be played by generic lectures or speeches
THanks Pat… You are 100% correct… which is why I always apologize for bringing my surgical into play. I will always be available for generic lectures and teaching… after all — We Are All Patients… and it will take a long times before SM enables a significant portion of our population.
Social media is essential for health care these days..It is frustrating when we go to doctors and we feel that we know more then they do, and that is because most of us are getting constantly updates on social media. We read about medicines and everything else….I wish the doctors in North Jersey would read more about what is going on social media..They should have a twitter or some other form of information source on their field. ..As we all know, medicine is on discovery mode constantly ..I find the doctors in my area very behind on every issue , and it is sad.
Sadly, It’s not just doctors and the health care industry in your area. But, let’s look on the bright side…. look at the number of social media/healthcare start ups …. look at the # of docs on twitter, FB, etc… At least the numbers are trending in the right direction. I’m committed to help us get there.