It’s one week to the SXSH – social health’s latest unconference that pulls together patient, provider and pharma types. It goes down one day before the famed SXSW in Austin, Texas.

As the ultimate meeting of social visionaries, SXSW draws the movers and shakers of the interactive world. SXSH is drawing on SXSW’s health-minded population to take over where it leaves off. Health, after all, is often an afterthought for the strapping young demographic most enthralled with social media.

This inaugural meeting is the brainchild of Shwen Gwee and Dana Lewis fueled by the hard work of the St. David Hospital System’s social wunderkind, Reed Smith. Confirmed speakers include Johnson & Johnson’s Marc Monseau, MD Anderson’s Jenn Texada, Humana’s Greg Mathews, Better Health’s Val Jones, Ignite’s Fabio Gratton and the unflappable David Hale.

Most importantly you’ll have the opportunity to have a beer with Ed Bennett.

SXSH is important because it puts social health on the agenda. Hopefully the concept of SXSH will evolve and showcase the need for a forum like this in a setting like SXSW. For any healthcare organization within reach of the Austin area, the unique opportunity that SXSH offers shouldn’t be missed. There are still a few tickets available. You can register here.

And if you run into Chris Brogan, David Armano, Steve Rubel,  Amber Naslund, Jeremiah Owyang, Robert Scoble, Peter Kim or any other board-certified social media guru, point them to the SXSH mixer on the rooftop of the Texas Healthcare Association building Thursday evening.  It’ll be the hottest gig in town. No ticket? No worries. I’ll personally muscle you in the door.

See y’all in in Austin.