Last night I went out to Rockville, Maryland for Social Media Club DC. I was armed with an interest in the panel discussion about Health 2.0 and was curious to hear what the panelists had to say. What I found was a vibrant discussion and several lively debates about where Health 2.0 was going, but no single prescription for how to interact with patients in the Web 2.0 world.
Health 2.0 is defined as “participatory health care.” As the Wall Street Journal put it, “the social-networking revolution has come to health care.”
At the SMC DC event, there seemed to be a divide between old pros and young-blood ideas. One participant described himself as part of the group that built the Internet and suggested those looking for Health 2.0 solutions focus on what he called “URL equity,” which for most health care information searches, is based on Google’s Algorithm. He added that the real problem is the “discoverability of health information.”
A former Revolution Health strategist and NIH scientist mentioned the Journal of Internet Medical Research, the National Library of Medicine and Medline Plus as places for consumers to go. “It’s your tax dollars at work,” she said.
Communication professionals in the audience were happy to learn that such resources exist, but a few didn’t particularly like the idea of using them – arguing that though the data is objective, it is not very consumer-friendly.
Panelist Joel Selzer (@jbselz), who launched a Physician’s Trusted Network called Ozmosis, referenced an article one of his bloggers, Dr. John Bahn, wrote about Social Media Trends to Watch for in 2009. I looked it up following the panel and found some interesting bits of information.
The most unique point Bahn made, in my humble opinion (imho), was about how physicians are recognizing social media tools as a resource, not a distraction. He made note of the growing interest they have in mobile apps for “referencing medication doses and practice management resources.”
For more info on SMC DC, check out their Web site and Twitter fed.
Erica Anderson, Senior Digital Strategist
