Why Social Media in Healthcare?

Phil Baumann (@PhilBaumann) who can also be found at @HealthIsSocial had a great blog post this morning titled “A Note to Readers” in it he posits that

“…. it’s the emerging ideologies concerning Healthcare and Social Media that are giving me pause.

Why? Because I feel that we’re not taking enough alone-time to step back and critically think about what all this technology deeply means.”

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Phil brings up some great points in this posts and one of the responses via Twitter was from Dr Howard J Luks (@hjluks) who reminded us of his recent posts “Social Media and Healthcare – Where are We?” and “Better…(and Time to Move Forward)” that refer to the circular nature of discussion that can occur in the Health Social Media space and include some great comments like this from Andrew Spong (@AndrewSpong)

“Welcome to the summit of Mount Frustration. We puff and wheeze to get to the top, only to find that everyone is either still following along behind us, or has already begun their descent into the Land of Possibility that lies beyond”

I think this discussion is especially interesting with the Annual HIMSS Conference kicking-off in Orlando this week-end and with the huge focus that HIMSS (@HIMSS) is placing on Social Media with the Social Media Center on the exhibitor floor this year and at least 12 dedicated Social Media Focused sessions. Not to mention the increased number of vendors that have joined on the Social Media band-wagon. I hope they are here to stay and that they join in & help to evolve the discussion…

In my opinion the way we do business is changing. Social Media is a key part of the change. We are headed back to an era where relationships matter and where trust is key. The difference is that now when we look for information the first place we go might be Google or Bing (for me its Twitter). As both engines license Twitter data, social search is going to become more important. If there’s a greater understanding of Social Media, how to engage and what kind of information to share, it should drive increased innovation simply because awareness will be heightened. As there is increased innovation leveraging traditional IT platforms, health IT costs should decrease, hopefully freeing up funding for further innovation. Social Media can help drive this awareness.

So while the conversation may be circular in nature at times, it’s because we are evolving and learning from those that already understand and are willing to share their knowledge. Knowledge that can lead to innovation that can benefit us all. Remembering of course how Nick Dawson ( @NickDawson) finishes the weekly #HCSM (@HealthSocMed ) Twitter chats “We are all Patients” and we are social creatures!