Ryan Madanick recently took the initiative to propose a new hashtag for social media and medicine, #medsm.  You can read his ideas on the initiative over at Gut Check.  I suspect that the tag will make sense for those interested in medicine and social media.  I rarely use #hcsm because my tweets rarely involve health care communication.

There’s been criticism centered on the idea that medicine and social media shouldn’t have its own hashtag.  The suggestion that a hashtag is exclusive is correct.  It’s a tool for filtering.  Filters are exclusive.  Call it a silo, bubble, happy place or whatever you like.  What matters is that it’s a way to harness topic-specific information.

My opinion or any individual argument or belief about a hashtag is irrelevant.  The crowd will determine whether the tag makes sense.  The only opinion that matters is that of the microcommunity that ultimately finds it useful, or not.

The Twitter ecosystem is becoming quite busy.  Health care is very broad.  Anything that helps me filter is good.

The last I checked #medsm is off to a strong start.