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Social Media and Its Impact on the Healthcare Industry

Today, 650 hospitals have an active presence on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter and numerous healthcare organizations have turned the corner to engage in conversations online.  As we look back on the impact social media has had on the healthcare industry over the past year, we see dramatic growth in social media adoption by health care consumers, providers, and organizations. 

For example, health systems such as Henry Ford have begun to broadcast surgeries and answer clinical questions live via Twitter, new communities like WiserTogether have made it easier for patients to share novel practices around specific conditions such as pregnancy, and services such as iGuard have changed the way we think about drug safety. The FDA’s public hearings in November also gave hope that the cloud of regulatory uncertainty would soon be lifted and the Dose of Digital Wiki now lists hundreds of active pharmaceutical social media programs.

While the industry has taken a giant leap forward into the brave new social media world, we've only scratched the surface of what is yet to come. So what does the future hold?  Join me June 14th in Chicago, as Shahid Shah (CEO of HITSphere) and I explore the past and future at the 2nd Annual Healthcare New Media Marketing Conference.  Our talk kicks off a terrific event, and I am honored to join the distinguished group of speakers Q1 Productions has assembled.
 

***UPDATED*** Watch our opening address LIVE on UStream at 10am EST.

During our talk (you can also follow along using #HCNM), we'll provide an overview of major milestones in healthcare & social media since last year's conference, including:

    * widespread adoption of YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook by hospitals and pharma
    * continued growth of patient communities and decision support tools
    * rise of physician networking in private, trusted communities
    * impact of public health initiatives from HHS, CDC and the FDA
    * examples of private sector innovation such as social gaming

All of which will lead to our vision of how social media will drive fundamental change in the years to come.  Namely, a growing number of healthcare organizations will leverage social media as more than a marketing and communications tool.  They will embrace social media as an "innovation catalyst" and deploy more collaborative models that foster broader engagement and knowledge sharing mong patients, providers and trusted institutions. 

This is already taking place in small pockets of the health care industry, and I will highlight examples during our talk.  I also plan to share a more detailed perspective on the future of social media in medicine in a forthcoming white paper, but I'll post more about that next month.  For now, you can use #HCNM as a discount code if you'd like to join all of us in Chicago. 
 

 
    Joel Selzer Co-Founder & CEO Ozmosis, Inc.