The chat began in January of 2009, and continued almost every Sunday night at 8pm CT from then until now. Discussion has ranged around hundreds of topics related to healthcare and social media – such as interactions between patients and providers online; impact of new digital and social media tools to healthcare; and more. Predictions have been made by the community that have come true in practice in terms of impact of SM; others have been wrong or still waiting to be realized. Perspectives have included patients, every type of healthcare provider, and just about every perspective of professional working in all aspects of the healthcare industry.

So what happened? Here are 3 possibilities:

• New needs. #HCSM played a key role in bringing together like-minded individuals during a time when few of us had any idea of what we were doing. It helped us understand what was acceptable when there were no rules. Now public engagement in health care is like comfortable old furniture and the need for tight support just isn’t what it used to be.
• New channels of communication. #HCSM and Twitter were all we had back then. Now there are more places and spaces to connect and conspire. And many of us are subdivided into the channels that more tightly meet our needs.
• Evolving role of Twitter. Platforms change and our needs evolve. For me, Twitter has emerged as more of an information channel than a true ‘social’ tool – for better or worse.

Ultimately, the passing of #HCSM is really an indication of our maturity as a health care community.

As Pat Rich suggested on Twitter in December 2017:

All tweet chats are destined to morph or cease to be. Many in health that have ceased played valuable roles in their time.

Hats off to Dana Lewis for being the first to pull together the original health care rabble rousers.