Last year some 36,000 people died in the United States as a result of influenza. This year a new strain kills a few and the world is turned upside down. But swine flu hasn’t made it into history the way the media had predicted. So far it appears that the only epidemic was one of hysteria created by the media – both online and off. This week CNN’s hyped coverage did ... Continue Reading about Aporkalypse Not
Pay-for-Post Doctors
So with the mommy bloggers taking heat for their pay-for-post activity, I got to thinking: What’s going to happen when there are 20,000 physicians in the social media space? Anticipating that certain physician influentials will command big networks, we can expect to see pay-for-post activity evolve as a fertile marketing vehicle. Pharmaceuticals will, of course, fall ... Continue Reading about Pay-for-Post Doctors
Hellohealth – Not Ready for Prime Time
This week at Healthcare 2.0 I watched Dr. Jay Parkinson and software developer Myca unveil version 2 of the Hellohealth platform, the new social media based medical program for doctor-patient interaction. Hellohealth is a comprehensive, web-based patient care platform that allows patients and doctors to communicate through familiar tools like email or IM. Patients can ... Continue Reading about Hellohealth – Not Ready for Prime Time
Health 2.0 – Is There a Doctor in the House?
I spent the day today at HealthCamp Boston with some 150 medical thinkers. It was my first experience at a HealthCamp. If you’ve never been, it’s best described as an organic, roll-your-sleeves-up, stand-at-the-whiteboard, open source, ad lib meeting centered around health 2.0. Come with your issues and create an argument. Lots of discussion, talent and passion. But ... Continue Reading about Health 2.0 – Is There a Doctor in the House?
Defining the Doctor-Follower Relationship
Recently I received a friend request from a woman in the community where I practice. I didn’t recognize her so politely sent a message apologizing for not remembering where we had met. She promptly responded and informed me that we had never met but she had read my book. Her baby it seemed was miserable and the wait for an appointment in my clinic was too long for her ... Continue Reading about Defining the Doctor-Follower Relationship
Should Medical Microblogging Worry Patients?
So says Gary Schwitzer, founder of Health News Review, in a post you can read here. He references three recent newscasts that have covered surgical procedures via Twitter. Beyond noting that patients should be concerned about the use of Twitter (and even TV) in the operating room, he suggests that the press should be occupying its time with discussion of issues such ... Continue Reading about Should Medical Microblogging Worry Patients?