Health and social media at SXSW: New channels take on old problems
Today’s guest post is from Doug Naegele, an avid SmartBrief on Social Media reader and inveterate entrepreneur. His firm, Infield Communications, lives at the intersection of Health 2.0 and mobile solutions.
At least 10 sessions centered around health care and technology last week at the South by Southwest Interactive conference. I attended eight and came away with a few observations that may be valuable to the health community and those that serve it:
Infectious disease & Twitter
At the session titled When Swine Flew: Embracing Innovation in H1N1 Response we learned that in 2009, The National Institutes of Health collected all the swine flu related tweets from one hour of one day — a total of 1,300 tweets. They fed the tweets into a semantic language engine and analyzed the frequency of certain concepts. NIH saw patterns in the discussion, identified specific misinformation about the outbreak and had a head start on what topics to emphasize to the public. Follow discussion on this topic at #whenswineflu.
Suicide prevention, YouTube & Facebook
The panel entitled RT: I’m Going to Kill Myself. Preventing Suicide Online spotlighted YouTube’s Safety Center which users can link to from bottom of every YouTube page and offers videos from the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline that connect troubled youth to prevention resources. On Facebook, status updates containing suicidal content trigger a chain of back-end events which may lead to a referral to the Lifeline and/or reaching out to the poster directly. Follow discussion on this topic at #preventingsuicideonline.
Inactivity & apps
The wrap up session called Social Health Summit 2010: What We Learned highlighted a few gems, such as the social application Getupandmove.me which enables users to issue fitness challenges to their friends. (Think: I’ll do 15 pushups if you’ll climb two flights of stairs). Research shows that an asynchronous challenge, when two parties do things separately and not at the same time, is three times as effective as a synchronous challenge. (Think: You and I meet at the stairwell, and I do my pushups while you climb the stairs). Fascinating!
How providers communicate with patients
Many discussions at SXSW surrounded how doctors and hospitals can and should use social media to connect with patients, but two major roadblocks emerged.
- Many hospitals are hamstrung because they’re concerned about opening themselves up to negative feedback via social media. And to complicate matters, patient satisfaction can increase or decrease hospital reimbursement rates.
- Regulators are worried that if the social media genie is let out of the bottle, HIPAA — the federal law that imposes strict penalties for compromising patient data — may be compromised. Many doctors and hospitals are so concerned about HIPAA that its mere mention stops every social media discussion before it starts. Follow the discussion on this topic at #er20.
Image credit: Cimmerian, via iStock
Posted by npress on March 24th, 2010 at 2:40 am
The ability to of identify misinformation online and guide patients to the right information would be a great application for any health care practice. This could be a big step in advancing patients' health literacy – like providing a prescription for information. In addition, doctors or health care providers can humanize their efforts and demonstrate that they really care through their response and increase trust and build relationships with their patients.
Posted by #getupandmove Live at #sxsw! Shout Out On Smartblogs.com | Genetics News on March 24th, 2010 at 5:32 am
[...] March 24th, 2010 by admin Inactivity & Apps The Social Health Summit 2010: What We Learned wrap up highlighted a few gems, such as the social application Getupandmove.me which enables users to issue fitness challenges to their friends. (Think: I’ll do 15 pushups if you’ll climb two flights of stairs). Research shows that an asynchronous challenge, when two parties do things separately and not at the same time, is three times as effective as a synchronous challenge. (Think: You and I meet at the stairwell, and I do my pushups while you climb the stairs). Fascinating! via smartblogs.com [...]
Posted by Cindy on March 24th, 2010 at 2:34 pm
The internet has the great ability for people to share information about healthcare issues and concerns, especially as consumers are being asked to take more responsibility and cost for their care. Another area where this could become helpful will be as baby boomers deal with aging parents — there is so much to be shared about long-term care that could significantly impact the quality of care and life, and, set an industry on their heels – an industry that has been insular and needs great reform. Knowledge that is shared creates the power to impact change.
Posted by Cindy on March 24th, 2010 at 2:38 pm
http://www.gunthersgrades.com is such a site — a resource for families and friends who want to keep up with news about long-term care, share ratings and reviews of nursing homes and long-term acute care facilities and participate in a forum. Currently focused in Illinois but hoping to expand.
Posted by Tweets that mention Health and social media at SXSW: New channels take on old problems | SmartBlog On Social Media -- Topsy.com on March 24th, 2010 at 8:10 am
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Ad Council, Maury Giles, Maury Giles, Tom Stitt, SAVE and others. SAVE said: RT @PCDCNtwk: blog regarding social media panel at SXSW: http://ow.ly/1pVh2 by @textandshout [...]
Posted by MerrittColaizzi on March 24th, 2010 at 4:30 pm
That seems like a supercool idea from a patient POV. Any practitioners out there agree or disagree?
Posted by MerrittColaizzi on March 24th, 2010 at 4:33 pm
Interesting resource. Thanks for sharing, Cindy.
Posted by Aurora on April 6th, 2010 at 6:46 pm
I love that I can access health information online now, watch videos on youtube about it, read blog posts. However, the chances are high that I will run into medical misinformation while I'm looking for trustworthy info. It may put thereon purpose (by political groups perhaps) or it may be accidental. Either way, its up to the consumer to do their homework and make sure that their info comes from a quality source.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYSGRdRwyC8
Posted by MerrittColaizzi on April 6th, 2010 at 8:00 pm
Aurora, thanks for your comment. Critical thinking skills are important when looking for any kind of solutions online, and this is especially true with health info — we agree!