The Center for Connected Health reports that Twitter will be an effective tool to notify the public of medical alerts and information. As we’ve seen with recent news events, including the Hudson River landing a few months ago and tales of people in trouble who tweeted for help, citizen journalism and Twitter are powerful tools to spread news quickly.
But, UPI reports that the key to Twitter’s success as a mass communication tool for such a serious subject will rely on ensuring cautiousness to avoid public panic and protect confidentiality and patient privacy.
While new media is certainly important and citizen journalism intriguing, all industries, and specifically the health industry, will soon have to take steps to remedy situations that may arise from inaccurately reported or false news from unofficial sources that could lead to public panic. Naturally, this is an even greater concern when one’s health is at stake. I’ll certainly be on the watch for government and health agencies developing standards and protocols to protect confidentiality and ensure cautiousness while disseminating news through social media channels, will you?
This morning, the WSJ reported on various Silicon Valley companies striving to reduce healthcare costs and inefficiencies using high-tech methods. Examples include:
• A miniature digestible chip that can be attached to conventional medication, sending a signal that confirms whether patients are taking their prescribed pills.
• A wearable device for wirelessly measuring vital signs in hospital rooms.
• A Band-Aid-like sensor that monitors patients on the move by measuring respiration, fluid status and physical movements.
Can these technologies help improve our ailing healthcare system?
Eric Topol, a cardiologist and genomics professor at Scripps Research Institute, believes they can. “Wireless applications have the potential to change every one of these areas,” he said at an industry event in San Diego last week.
I must say I’m surprised some of these ideas are only now being developed. Wirelessly measuring vital signs seems like a no-brainer, as it eliminates the need for “spot checks” and allows for continuous monitoring of various signs such as blood pressure.
The digestible chip, though intended for good use, seems a bit “Big Brother” to me. I take my prescribed pills in the proper dosage, so I don’t know that I will get behind this chip.
What do you think about Silicon Valley’s effort to improve healthcare?
In an interesting article by Kaiser Health News (via MSNBC) health experts raise issue with the widely held belief that by stressing prevention they will lower healthcare costs. Furthermore, these experts also warn that prevention may not help to save lives either.
As I’ve written about before on this blog, the web is starting to transform how we, as patients, obtain healthcare information. Recognizing this, healthcare companies have become much more aggressive in how they’re using the web, specifically social media, to disseminate information. Forbes recently reported on a creative way one organization chose to promote a pivotal study.
In the Forbes piece, reporter Rebecca Ruiz, explains how the Mayo Clinic out of Rochester, Minn used Twitter to tease an upcoming study on celiac disease. They followed the folks re-tweeting the news and chose a select few to share the findings with exclusively. What’s unique about this, is that Mayo didn’t give the results to traditional reporters. They gave them patients with celiac and offered them an embargo of the study, with free reign to blog about it. A privilege typically reserved for journalists.
The results were also distributed on Facebook and through this YouTube video.
This example from Mayo is likely to be the wave of the future. Undoubtedly, more and more healthcare organizations will begin using Facebook, Twitter and other emerging social media tools and communities to reach out directly to the people affected by the disease states and conditions for which they are providing education. It will be interesting to see how these interactions impact new and traditional media as well as the consumption of healthcare information.
The Forbes piece also includes a great slideshow that highlights the best resources on the web for obtaining healthcare info. Check it out here.
Recently we had the opportunity to chat with new media evangelist and consultant, Ron Ploof, of the popular RonAmok! blog. Ron shared his thoughts on his recent case study that evaluates Johnson & Johnson’s social media platform and how other pharmaceutical and medical device companies can integrate social media into their communications programs.
Here’s what he had to say…
What is it about Johnson & Johnson that makes them a good example for other healthcare industry companies to follow in implementing a social media program?
Johnson & Johnson had a vision that social media could work for them, but had to find a way to put a toe in the water. With their first blog, The Kilmer House, they chose to look backwards, focusing on their 123 years of public education. The choice to look backwards is brilliant because no one can get into trouble for backward-looking statements. By choosing something safe that fit within their corporate culture, J&J learned lessons and built upon that experience.
With compliance issues and medical companies under constant scrutiny for communication tactics (among other things), isn’t there a risk for companies to join in the conversation?
With healthcare you have to ask if what a company says online actually hurts the public. We started regulations to protect people from big-bad corporations, like the elixir salesman in the J&J case study. But what happens when such restrictions put a stranglehold on the conversation? I think the government is going to have to think through that question.
The other important thing to consider is that if they don’t figure out how to communicate online, patients will do it for them. If J&J doesn’t host the conversation about a particular disease or treatment option, people who are suffering from a disease state will collect together and talk about it–independent of pharmaceutical and device companies. For instance, PatientsLikeMe is a great place for people to discuss their ailments. A social network of like-minded people is totally different than talking with a company or a doctor, so people on PatientsLikeMe and other patient networks, like SugarStats, will probably share more information than the pharmaceutical companies ever dreamed of them sharing.
So do you think social media is the future for companies in healthcare communication?
It doesn’t matter, because the conversation is going to happen regardless. Companies and government regulators will have to figure out how to make it work, and if they don’t, the patients will. The tricky thing is that lawyers and regulators want absolutes–for everything to fit into black and white terms. Such a hope is impossible with conversation. Conversation is gray. The good news is that the issue will be solved. The question is: who will do it first?
Companies with the best chance of cracking it are those willing to take a little bit of risk. The risk being: we have decided to talk about this subject because we think there is a benefit for the greater good. When you look at companies like J&J, you see that healthcare companies keep inching closer and closer. As companies push the envelope further, some might get slapped, but maybe that will be the catalyst for change. For example, if a company creates a portal so valuable to patients, yet is removed because of some arcane regulation, the public uproar will force the regulations to change.
What are some basic steps a company looking to experiment with social media can take now?
Across industries, the most common obstacles include internal resistance and fear of losing control of your brand. Let’s face it. When you go online, you lose all control. The first step, then, is to explain this fact to upper management and gain their support.
Once you have support, I always recommend starting with a blog first. One of my top ten rules for social media is ‘don’t build an entire social media strategy on rented land.’ A blog on my website is mine. Twitter, Facebook and other social networks are great, but if you build your entire social media presence on external site and they go away, you’ve lost it all. With a blog, if one of the rented properties changes, your audience can trace the breadcrumbs back to your home—the blog. What I really like about J&J is that they built their foundation on their own land first and then built out with rented pieces. They started with two blogs, then went to YouTube, and now they’re using Twitter like a quarterback to tie all of the pieces together.
The other thing is to make sure you’re always measuring what you’re doing. With traditional media, we used to rent an audience from a publisher or a broadcaster, but social media allows us to build a specific audience of people interested in our products and services. To make sure that audience remains engaged, you have to measure its size and level of engagement to see what’s working, and what’s not. If your audience is growing and engaged and you still face internal resistance, show them the measurements. No one can argue with results.
In your J&J case study, you talk a lot about the impact of videos. Why do you think they are so effective, and what are best practices tips for companies looking to make videos?
Humans are very visual beings, so video is one of the quickest growing aspects online. To me, the success is in the stories and storytelling. We pay $10 to sit in a crowded movie theater with people we don’t even know to stare at a screen. Why? Because we’re hardwired to love stories. Therefore, creating online video that tells stories is an excellent way to communicate a message. Probably my favorite quote from C.C. Chapman is “the quality in it (video) is more important than the quality of it.” Companies must get more comfortable with the fact that we don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on a studio production. A lot of people think you need expensive studios and lighting to make a good online video, but to me that’s old media. As long as the sound and video aren’t distracting, the success comes from properly capturing the story.
It’s amazing what can be achieved with a mobile phone, but have you ever wondered what such a device can do beyond making calls, sending text messages, taking pictures and accessing the internet?
A relatively recent development is the emergence of mHealth or mobile health: defined by Wikipedia as the term for medical and public health practice supported by mobile devices, such as mobile phones, patient monitoring devices, PDAs and other wireless devices.
mHealth technology is mainly being taken up in developing countries that have to bypass the physical infrastructure costs associated with fixed-line technology to jump straight to mobile technology as isolated populations in developing countries need access to suitable communications technology including vital healthcare provisions.
Driven by companies like ARM, the cost of smart components for mobile technology continues to decrease. The ever-developing functionality of mobile phones now allows for SmartPhone-capabilities in relatively inexpensive devices. However, it is important to remember that the capabilities of such devices in developing countries have not yet reached the sophistication of those in other parts of the world. Yet, the basic SMS text functions and the real-time communication capacity can still offer a number of potential uses to healthcare professionals and patients.
Replacing the Physician?
The potential of mobile technology to revolutionise healthcare is clear, but what is also clear is that it will not completely replace the physician, the nurse or the healthcare professional. Its purpose, however, can be manifold and can offer a multitude of solutions to:
• Raise awareness and educate the public on specific disease and conditions
• Data mining and collection for public health purposes and clinical trials
• Remote monitoring of for example diabetes, HIV, weight and smoking cessation
• Communication for and training of healthcare workers
• Disease surveillance and the tracking of epidemic outbreaks such as Malaria, TB and Avian Flu.*
This kind of mobile technology has incredible potential to promote healthy lifestyles and enhance the quality of healthcare by making it easier to access medical and health information. The prospect of advancing public health and clinical care through encouraging communication and facilitating health practice can then improve the health of isolated populations.
The Potential Exists
The range of opportunities for mHealth includes the ability for users to store their personal health information safely and securely on their phone and enable them to share it with the suitable healthcare professional when needed. It can also enable easy communication between healthcare providers, patients, and others, providing medication reminders, appointment scheduling and emergency calling. Furthermore, it can serve as a platform for wellness-related, weight-related and disease management programmes.
Additionally, it can also offer quick access to health information and provide efficient tools for medical research and surveys that can garner important information from isolated populations that isn’t readily available.
Success Already Visible
mHealth is well positioned to benefit from best practices and available technology that has been seen in already existing projects. For example the TeleDoc project in India. TeleDoc provides mobile devices to village health workers in India, which enables them to communicate with doctors who use web applications to help diagnose and prescribe for patients. The project was originally launched as a pilot project in 15 villages in April 2003 and has already proved quite successful.
Another example is the Nacer project in Peru, which is a phone and web-based information and communication system that has enabled health professionals in remote locations to communicate and exchange critical health information between themselves, medical experts and regional hospitals. The project is geared particularly at women during pregnancy and childbirth and aims to lower maternal death rates in the Ucayali region of Peru, by enabling the exchange of rapid, real-time information between all healthcare professionals.
The number of similar projects continues to grow offering opportunities to patients and healthcare professionals alike, not only in developing countries, but globally.
*Vital Wave Consulting (February 2009). mHealth for Development: The Opportunity of Mobile Technology for Healthcare in the Developing World. United Nations Foundation, Vodafone Foundation. pp. 9. http://www.vitalwaveconsulting.com/pdf/mHealth.pdf.
As a new generation of users come on the scene and popularity continues to spike, can we coax the healthcare industry into diving deeper with social media practices and leading the conversation?
By Dana
Last week, DiagnosisPR attended the Healthcare and Social Media Panel hosted by the Mass Technology Leadership Council (check out #MassTLC’s blog post recapping the event).Experts from all different walks of healthcare came together to provide tips for leveraging social media to positively impact patient and physician groups—a difficult endeavor, considering not only the compliance, transparency and ethics issues at stake, but also the broad array of constituents (and associated special interests) that need influencing in order to spur significant societal shifts.
The panelists pointed out that as we’re seeing across most next generation media channels, people are less concerned with having access to tomes of content, and rather seek out interaction and resources online. It makes sense, really: one-way communication and tightly packaged messages are fast becoming a thing of the past, especially in a field where consumers have a vested interest in cutting through any marketing haze to decipher what’s real versus what’s hype. In the realm of social media, Content is no longer king – Conversation is. Patients and physicians alike are becoming increasingly focused on making responsible diagnoses and healthcare choices, and the most direct avenue for achieving this is access to other human beings.
We’ve seen companies across the healthcare industry balk against adopting social media strategies for some time now, most recently in the form of drug companies reluctant to join the Twittersphere. What’s more, famous cases like that of the notorious Dr. Flea and the HIPAA crackdown could make some physicians skittish when it comes to joining the conversation.This broad-brush caution is reasonable, but risky at the same time: we learned from panel moderator Lynne Dunbrack that 60 million adults in the US are currently using social networking in some capacity.A marked spike in social media consumption among the middle-aged cohort is a promising sign for all those in the healthcare industry…Health 2.0 has a new face, and one that is itching for information and participation. In order for healthcare to positively impact this population and precipitate change, it is more vital than ever before to join these discussions and increase accessibility.
Check out some great strategies for leveraging social media for healthcare in this slideshow. Do you have any suggested strategies you’d like to share?
DiagnosisPR has made the trek to sweltering Fort Lauderdale to report on the latest trends in the broad field of infection control from the Association of Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) Annual Conference. This year’s show was kicked-off by an inspiring keynote presentation from Benjamin S. Carson, MD of Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions about turning challenges into triumphs. The audience walked away with new strategies for succesful infection prevention and control programs. With guidelines in place from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid where some hospital-acquired conditions are deemed non-reimbursable, infection control is top of mind for infection control specialists and the C-suite alike. Stay tuned for more coverage from APIC!
Racepoint’s very own Jackie Lustig is attending the Bio International Convention 2009 at the George World Congress Center in Atlanta. Here are her initial thoughts on the show:
“It’s a truly global event attracting scientists from all over the world. This year’s theme is “Heal, Fuel, Feed the World.” Among the exhibitors are Spain, Australia, Thailand, Brazil, Korea, France, Germany, Belgium and the states of Georgia, Massachusetts, California, North Carolina and Connecticut.
With traditional industrial manufacturing on the wane, governments at all levels have figured out that biotech is an industry that has the potential to bring well-paying jobs to their regions. The front page of the Atlanta Constitution Journal and the Georgia booth was a buzz with the news that the state is investing $400,000 to establish a biotech innovation center in the state – the first in the Southeast.
The exhibition also includes a number of biotech start-ups and the expected big boys. People we’ve talked to say that the mood is lot less ebullient than last year’s event in sunny San Diego. Due to the economic downturn, biotech funding has slowed dramatically. Most exhibitors have scaled back the number of people they’ve brought to Atlanta.
Sometimes it takes getting on a plane to meet interesting companies that are in one’s own backyard. Among the most innovative companies we met is Cubist, located in Lexington, Mass. Cubist was just ranked #1 in the annual Globe 100, Best of Massachusetts companies. It’s a great story of how persistence pays off and the ups and downs of new drug discovery.
There are some big headliners at this event – Sir Elton John being the big, big draw. Unfortunately, our pass didn’t get us into his keynote… maybe next year.”
Larry Weber, Chairman of W2 Group, recently interviewed Charlie Baker, president and CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare and prolific blogger at Let’s Talk Healthcare on “Market Edge with Larry Weber” about the hesitancy of healthcare companies to engage in social media. While this topic has been discussed frequently in social media circles, it was great to hear Baker’s perspective on this, since he was one of the first healthcare executives to embrace social media and open a dialogue with the community through his blog. Baker spoke about the importance of removing the nameless-ness and faceless-ness out of the healthcare industry and learning from the community. Overall, he feels that the delay from the industry is the fear of giving up control and having people write negative comments on the site. While this is of course a concern, he urges other leaders to start the dialogue and thinks that it will soon pick up steam. The interview can be heard at: http://www2.webmasterradio.fm/market-edge/
What are your thoughts about the future of transparency and dialogue in the healthcare industry?
