Category: HCSM

Posted in HCSM
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Dr. Bertalan Meskó's avatarScienceRoll

Many years ago, I launched the first blog carnival about social media and medicine, but after 39 editions I switched to more dynamic methods for curating information online. Although it’s always a pleasure to see other active carnivals such as the Health Care Social Media Review. Moreover, this is my honor now to host the 24th edition focusing on the undervalued fact that social media actually loves healthcare.

Google Glass, iWatch and IBM Watson Revolutionizing The Practice of Medicine

In my submission, I described the ways how disruptive technologies can help medical professionals and patients.

Patient Engagement Explored at the ePharma Summit

Casey Quinlan had the fortune of being asked to participate on a panel titled Social Media for Pharma: A Match Made in Heaven or Hell? at the ePharma Summit in New York.

In Tweets We Trust: Determining The Credibility Of Health Related Tweets

A 2012 paper by…

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Posted in HCSM

Looking for an alternative to Google Reader? Try Feedly

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Google Reader Dead

Shock and dismay greeted the latest decision by Google to kill off its Reader, and while a  “Save Our Reader!”petition is gathering pace today, I am inclined to agree with Forbes contributor Alex Kantrowitz that “Google evidently weighed the decision beforehand, it is unlikely that any protest, no matter how long it trends on Twitter, will get Google to change its mind. Google Reader, for all intents and purposes, is dead.”

So what are the alternatives to Google Reader? There are several already available, and the one I am currently using is Feedly.

Feedly  is an RSS feed reader application which allows you to organize your favorite blogs, news sites and Youtube channels and access them all in one place (or sync with Google Reader, Twitter and Facebook).  It works with Chrome, Firefox, and mobile devices and syncs with Google Reader to manage your RSS feeds.  Feedly have a step by step guide to  help migrate from Google Reader here.

Feedly recently announced a new collaboration with Buffer (a tool which schedules your social media updates for maximum exposure) allowing users to share their favorite articles from Feedly using their personalized Buffer schedule (click here for some good tips on how to maximise these two tools for effective content sharing).

You can also add Feedly to your phone, tablet and computer and keep up to date with your reading while on the go. The magazine style layout lets you easily browse through previews and see pictures to decide quickly what’s worthy of your attention.

 

Posted in Doctor, HCSM, Twitter

Take The Healthcare Social Media Identity Survey

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surveyIn my latest blog post on using Twitter as a healthcare tool,  two of the findings which emerged in determining the credibility of tweets were that:

  • users are poor judges of truthfulness based on content alone, and instead are influenced by heuristics such as user name when making credibility assessments.
  • users represented by the default Twitter icon are perceived as significantly less credible than users with any other type of icon image.

Clearly, establishing your online identity is a key factor in establishing your credibility.  So, I will be very interested to see the results of an online survey on healthcare social media identity which will be presented in Paris in June at Doctors 2.0 & You.

If you would like to take part in this survey please click here to participate.

Posted in HCSM, mHealth

Do health app directories support or stifle innovations in health apps?

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At this years Innovation Expo (13/14 March) the NHS Commissioning Board will be launching the Health Apps Library. The Health Apps Library acts as a NHS approved app store for iOS, Android, Blackberry and web apps allowing users to find apps to help with their conditions, live healthier and provide information on health and social care. Every app in the Health App Library has been through a formal review process that ensures that the information is correct and clinically safe.

There are over 13,000 health apps available to smartphones at the moment. The quality of the apps and the information contained within them vary wildly as developers with different motives and ability look to use the smartphone’s app paradigm to improve the user’s health or to make some easy money. The app markets also cater for international markets; developers can choose which countries they’d like to sell their app in (and can produce localised versions if they wish) but there is no quality check to ensure that the apps are localised meaning that some of the apps in the UK app stores are actually American.

When a developer submits their app to the app store it is checked over to ensure it runs and meets a number of app store criteria. Of the app stores Blackberry and Apple are the most demanding but they only check to ensure that the app works to a certain standard, won’t comprise the device and are provide enough functionality to be considered an app. The Google Play Market are less demanding and in general apps submitted to it will be live within a few hours compared to the week or longer wait of Apple’s app store.

By offering users a single point of contact for UK clinically reviewed apps the user doesn’t run the risk of downloading an app that isn’t going to meet the standards of NHS patient information. This helps to create some equilibrium in the otherwise turbulent app market environment where apps are judged by the number of times downloaded and not the overall quality of the app and the information it contains. For clinicians the Health Apps Library will serve as a clear index of apps suitable for patients to use on their devices and will allow them to suggest apps knowing that the app has met the high standards expected of NHS backed products. This will help with the information prescriptions initiative and ultimately increase the amount of clinically validated information available to a patient.

See on nhssm.org.uk

Related Reading:

The NHS Health Apps Library

#NHSSM Tweet Chat

Posted in HCSM

Create great hospital content :: Healthcare Marketing + Communications

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See on Scoop.it – Health Care Social Media Monitor

Whether you need a concept, or don’t know where to start, this article will help you develop content that will educate, engaged and impact your patients.

Marie Ennis-O’Connor‘s insight:

Good content has value to everyone who encounters your brand, from casual health information seekers to long-term loyal patients – Nicola Ziady

See on nicolaziady.com

Posted in HCSM

Medicine, morality and health care social media

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See on Scoop.it – Health Care Social Media Monitor

Farris Timimi, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, and a Consultant in Cardiovascular Diseases and Internal Medicine at the Mayo Clinic. He serves as Medical Director for the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media. 

Marie Ennis-O’Connor‘s insight:

The use of social media has grown exponentially and time spent on social media sites now represents one in five minutes spent online. Concomitant with this online growth, there has been an inverse trajectory in direct face-to-face patient-provider moments, which continue to become scarcer across the spectrum of health care. In contrast to standard forms of engagement and education, social media has advantages to include profound reach, immediate availability, an archived presence and broad accessibility. Our opportunity as health care providers to partner with our patients has never been greater, yet all too often we allow risk averse fears to limit our ability to truly leverage our good content effectively to the online community. This risk averse behavior truly limits our capacity to effectively engage our patients where they are — online.

See on www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Posted in HCSM

Infographic: The Inevitability of Online Self-Diagnosis

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dandunlop's avatarThe Healthcare Marketer

Almost every day I receive an email from someone with a new infographic they would like me to consider posting on my blog. Most of them never see the light of day; however, this one interested me.  It points out the reality and inevitability of online self-diagnosis. It also addresses some potential dangers of online self-diagnosis. My problem with this graphic is that it doesn’t tell the whole story. It fails to point out the benefit of having access to this online health information and to other people who’ve experienced the same symptoms or illness. The real question is: Do the rewards outweigh the risks.

I would also point out that there’s a whole lot more that healthcare organizations can be doing online to engage patients and concerned family members, and provide them with legitimate information and resources about their condition. Here’s the deal: If there is a void, someone…

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Posted in E-Patient, HCSM

mHealth Applications Must Foster Patient Engagement

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To help providers increase patient engagement through mHealth, the NeHC has developed a five-step patient engagement framework.

“Patient engagement” is one of the biggest buzz phrases in mobile healthcare (mHealth). Dr. Fastad Mostashari, who serves as National Coordinator for IT the National eHealth Collaborative (NeHC), has said that “patient engagement is the blockbuster drug of the century.”

See on www.healthtechzone.com

Posted in HCSM

Healthcare Social Media Week in Review: March 11, 2013

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See on Scoop.it – Health Care Social Media Monitor

This week’s healthcare social media chat was quiet, but that didn’t mean information wasn’t being shared.  In this week’s Healthcare Social Media Week

Marie Ennis-O’Connor‘s insight:

Creating a two-way dialogue is something the social media platform Twitter does, and does well.  In healthcare, this two way street is crucial between doctor and patient.  Rachel Seda does a great job honing in on four ways social media is transforming doctor/patient communication.  If you’re looking to gain insights into the how, give this article a read.  4 Ways Social Media Can Transform Doctor-Patient CommunicationA good infographic displays statistics in a visual way that helps the brain make a connection.  This infographic does a great job displaying insights on how the digital world is transforming healthcare.  6 Characters Rebooting Medicine and HealthIf your clinic is curious about social media and asking the question of how do we get started, odds are a quick Google search will turn up an overwhelming amount of information.  The team at Webicina has compiled a wonderful guide to social media that focuses on quality and credibility.  If you’re looking for a short and concise guide, look no further.  A Social Media Guide to Quality and Credibility in Medical ResourcesStrategy is always a topic of discussion when it comes to how the healthcare community can utilize social media.  The group at Signals does a nice job creating a cheat sheet for healthcare and social media.  From research and objectives to implementation, this graph is a resource to bookmark.  Health Care & Social MediaAnytime the TED community is attached to a project, odds are it’s going to be insightful and engaging.  This TED video is a little different, but packs a ton of material into a great Google Hangout.  The topic for the Hangout was Improving Medical Communication and is part of the TEDMED Great Challenges series.

See on mdwebpro.com