Social Media and Its Impact on the Healthcare Industry
Tags: social media, HCNM, Pharma, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, medicine, health systems, FDA, CDC, physician
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.
Preparing For H1N1 and the 2009 Flu Season
Tags: H1N1, CDC, WHO, Veratect, Public Health Initiatives
As the influenza season approaches, our focus has turned to the Southern Hemisphere to learn how they weathered their first wave of the pandemic H1N1 Influenza virus. On Ozmosis, physicians have been following regular tactical reports on H1N1's impact from Dr. James Wilson, Chief Scientist and Biosurveillance expert at Veratect. 
Dr. Wilson's reporting has included morbidity and mortality statistics, effects on ICU's and infrastructure, and social dissent and unrest stemming from H1N1's spread. While there are too many variables to reliably predict what our experience will be this fall, the reports reveal some very concerning details about how quickly the health systems in many countries were overwhelmed by both the sick and the worrying well.
More than two million people are believed to have contracted the new flu in the U.S.; 7,511 had been hospitalized and 477 had died as of Aug. 13, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. World-wide, 177,457 people have been confirmed with the disease, and 1,462 deaths had been reported as of Aug. 12, according to the World Health Organization.
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Driving Health IT Through Innovations in Social Media
Tags: social media, FDA, Health IT, CDC, Clinovations, HHS, NIH, Amplify Public Affairs
With close to $40 billion in stimulus funding specifically appropriated for Health IT adoption and a wave of successful initiatives utilizing social media for public health, key decision makers need to understand the full potential social media has to affect positive change for healthcare reform. We already know the Obama Administration believes Social Media offers a low cost way to improve transparency and drive community engagement, and earlier this year we shared Six Ideas where Social Media could be used to ease and improve the HIT integration process. Now, we need to ensure that the right stakeholders join the conversation.
To help educate policy makers and advance the discussion, Ozmosis is co-hosting a Symposium on Thursday, July 16th with Amplify Public Affairs and Clinovations, entitled, "Driving Health IT Through Innovations in Social Media." We have a terrific group of speakers from CDC, FDA, HHS, NIH and the private sector who will demonstrate the success of and lessons learned from existing social media programs in the federal, state and private health sectors.
Social Media And Public Health: New Tools In The Battle Against Influenza
Tags: H1N1, Health Alerts, CDC, WHO, Veratect
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
