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Social Media And Public Health: New Tools In The Battle Against Influenza

For the past six weeks Ozmosis has been quietly testing a new Real-Time Health Alerts solution. In its early stages, this tool is a joint project between Ozmosis and Veratect, a company that tracks disease outbreaks globally. While we had not intended to publicly launch the Health Alerts solution yet, the recent events around the Swine Influenza outbreaks have caused us to push ahead. After launching to the Ozmosis community yesterday, the system has quickly generated significant usage and results.   Unlike a simple RSS or Twitter feed for Swine Flu and Pandemic alerts, the Ozmosis solution allows its physicians to:

• view, search, and filter through alerts state by state
• discuss management and treatment options, share health department and CDC updates
• submit their own potential cases for review which are then evaluated by Veratect, verified and reported back to Ozmosis, the CDC, the UN, and other health agencies

Since opening Health Alerts to the Ozmosis Community, a growing number of physicians are now receiving real-time updates and discussing the Influenza outbreaks across the country. Situation assessments are already being submitted by doctors in New York and Ozmosis is working with Veratect to allow them to compile more accurate reports to health agencies. During a difficult and confusing time, social media is already having a noticeable impact...helping to quickly spread important and timely medical information to all parties. Just look at the sharp rise of swine flu mentions on twitter (see graph below), both Veratect and the CDC now have tens of thousands of twitter followers, and the WHO has released an RSS feed for Swine Flu updates.

Social media is allowing us, as practicing physicians, to play a critical role in the surveillance of potentially devastating diseases like Swine Influenza - we can contribute - not simply react to what is going on around us. Empowering physicians to participate in this crisis will improve outcomes and save lives.

If you are a U.S. Licensed physician, you may join Ozmosis and begin tracking and discussing Swine Flu alerts. (registration requires verification of US licensure and identity) You can also learn more about Real-Time Health Alerts on Ozmosis.

Jason Bhan, MD Co-Founder, Ozmosis
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