I specifically remember what Regina and the group said (in paraphrase) – “Show me the DNA of a high quality doctor.” and “Demonstrate that this/you are a doctor that I’m going to love.”
This is a very different need than “Tell me what I need to know about when to get a flu shot.” Not that patients don’t want this information also, of course.
With that in mind, my colleague Rahul Parikh, MD, a practicing pediatrician and accomplished writer across many venues, worked on an experiment together and we’d like your feedback.
This is him tweeting one way, let’s call it “standard” (more “education”):
This is him tweeting a different way, let’s call it “DNA – Enhanced” (more “engagement”):
Here’s the input we would like:
Do you notice the difference in the content/approach?
Which way would you want your own doctor. to tweet? (or a different way not shown here)
If you were looking to choose a doctor, does either approach draw you more to a potential physician?
Thanks for your comments in the comments, and thanks again to the patients, who continue to demonstrate that they are more than willing to help us perform well for them – all we have to do is ask.
90-9-1 – Brilliant idea for a web site for a concept that I often try to explain. 90% of users are the “audience”, or lurkers. The people tend to read or observe, but don’t actively contribute.
9% of users are “editors”, sometimes modifying content or adding to an existing thread, but rarely create content from scratch.
1% of users are “creators”, driving large amounts of the social group’s activity. More often than not, these people are driving a vast percentage of the site’s new content, threads, and activity.
This is a very nice interview of Jeremiah Owyang and Ray Wang from Altimeter Group, by Robert Scoble (now of Rackspace). I am a big fan of all. They cover all the information in social media that I’m interested in. (Is RSS reading really dead?)
We can listen to the thoughts of the audience as much as we listen to the thoughts of the panelists, and you.
At today’s presentation at WHIT 5.0, I asked every audience member to write down something on a note card about what they heard today about using social media to engage patients and change the health care system. They could write a comment, a question, or just “have a nice day,” as long as they wrote something.
Unfortunately, we ran out of time to go through these with the panel. Fortunately, the conversation can now continue in cyberspace, because the questions are written down.
Take a look. Answer one, or answer them all in the comments.
A few years ago, I was asked to prepare a presentation for leaders with two simple directives: “Ted, no powerpoint slides, and no talking heads, please.”
My response to that was equally simple: “Okay, then you’ll get to listen to the real boss/CEO/Board, the member.” (recall that Group Health Cooperative is member-governed)
Ever since then I have kept trying to include the patient perspective, and noticing that when it’s included, how compelling it is (see this photograph for proof).
Sometimes, I’ve been told, “Ted, a patient wouldn’t be appropriate for this setting.” But I still kept asking….
Our session is in the section entitled “Consumer Connectivity: Engagement Through Social Networking,” and the title of our discussion is, “Beyond the PHR: Promoting participation at all levels: internal and external; patient, family, community.”
Holly is representing the health system perspective, though her work as Vice President of Public Relations and National Stakeholder Management for Kaiser Permanente.
What they have in common, is that they show how sometimes, your life can change, literally overnight, and social media tools are means to teach and learn from people “just like me,” to make a lasting difference.
Beyond the title, I’ve been asked to summarize what this panel will be about, which I’ll do here, with main points:
How does a health system foster broader participation after connecting 3.3 million patients online to their health care teams?
What are patients’ expectations for participation in health and health care using social media?
How are patients and families leveraging social media to participate in reshaping the system itself?
I haven’t yet run these by Holly, Dave, and Regina, they are to help potential attendees know what the session is about, so there may be edits. Or if you have suggestions, post them in the comments, please.
What I see happen when this perspective is brought in is that people in the audience become less afraid/more confident in taking risks to do what they can to help people. That’s what I want to promote.
The dream part is that I engage organizers of a respected event like this to bring these exceptional experiences directly to their audiences. So, thank you WHIT 5.0, I will do my best not to let you down!
Speaking of exceptional experiences. Here is Regina’s. We’re on at 10:55 am, on Day 2, please come and join us.
Disclosure of material connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this content or moderating this panel; I am an employee of one of the organizations represented on the panel (Kaiser Permanente); I am receiving admission to the event sessions as a speaker.
The policy was developed in consultation with organizations inside and outside of health care, and can serve as a template for other health care organizations (many of whom are working to create these policies).
The policy itself supports, rather than discourages, the use of social media in a responsible, organization-preserving way. This is a good direction, in my opinion, for an organization to take in thinking about social media use.
“One of the most actively discussed topics in the Twitter universe over the past couple months has been the idea that teens don’t tweet – at least not as much as older demographics, and certainly not as actively as teens who use other popular social networking sites.
Now, it appears that this story may be shifting. According to new data from comScore, younger users – specifically those in the 12-17 and 18-24 year-old demographics – are Twitter’s fastest growing audience segment. “
Death by Information Overload – HBR.org – “Wow! Michalski, an independent consultant who advises companies on the use of social media, isn’t drowning in a cascade of information. He’s not even trying to ride it out in a barrel. He’s surfing Niagara Falls. So what’s his secret? “You have to be Zen-like,” he patiently explained to me. “You have to let go of the need to know everything completely.”
I think this is an important philosophy to embrace – “I don’t need to know everything completely” – social media is a lower fidelity communication than, say, e-mail.
The other interesting point this article raises is in the area of return on investment – avoidance of e-mail can be as significant as avoiding travel to converse with people….
E-Health Europe :: Swedish hospitals lead on social media – So far, the research has shown that Swedish hospitals leads the use of social media tools, with 11% of Swedish hospitals studied using RSS feeds and 4% using blogs. Spanish and Danish hospitals closely follow with more than 8% using RSS feeds. The study also shows that Dutch and English hospitals use the widest variety of social networking methods including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and particularly blogs (8.13%)
I would say this article falls in the "unenthusiastic about the future" category.
The author led off with the University of Florida study as a sort of example of unprofessional behavior online, and within it, cited that 50% of students shared their sexual orientation online, (as did the UF researchers, albeit in a different order than this author did, relative to other “personal information items” such as relationship status or political views).
In 2009, what’s unprofessional about sharing one’s sexual orientation (and why was it ever deemed unprofessional)?
Don’t many “traditional” physician profiles indicate marital and family status, and isn’t this sharing of a person’s sexual orientation, for those who are legally allowed to be married?
The writer’s approach seems to harken back to a different era, where “being professional” was thought of differently, based on who a person “was” (where they went to school, demographics, etc.) rather than how they behaved. Perhaps this is because there was so little information to base this judgement on.
This is why I believe social media has the potential to change the definition of what “being professional” is, in a positive way.
You shouldn’t have a resume or a CV. You should have a blog with an “About Me” section that yaps about all the things you’ve done to get where you are with full acknowledgement that most of your education, experience, and awards are worth nothing if they’re not backed by consistently interesting thoughts.
And this should be a requirement for graduating high school.
I agree with Jay. When a person’s behavior is as transparent as their given credentials, they’ll have the opportunity to show how they work to perform better for the people they serve every day.
One more thing – As I have observed many health professionals transition to communicating in an electronic world within health care systems, I have seen that they carry their caring and skill with them into new environments, as any professional would. An article about social media and professionalism should include this reality at its core.
Hospital Social Network List – This is a compiled list of hospitals that use various social networking tools. Helpful for establishing a benchmark. The list doesn’t cover what internal tools are used, such as internal social networks. Does anyone know of any well developed internal social networks in health care institutions? Please post in the comments if you do!
Not long ago I was ordering coffee and needed to wait a few seconds for the person taking my order to end a personal cell phone call. Once the call ended, she was extremely courteous, warm, and service oriented. I now realize that she was tapping into her social network, using her own information technology, at work.
There’s an ongoing conversation in many workplaces that starts with “(name your social network) is blocked by by my employer.”
This white paper, written by Demos, which bills itself as the think tank for every day democracy, delivers a broad look at social networking, and goes beyond, “your company should allow access to social networks.” On that point, though, here is what is said:
First, smart businesses recognise that ‘social’ networking is not neatly separable from ‘professional’ networking. Attempts to control employees’ use of social networking software in the office may end up damaging the organisation in the long run by depleting its network capital. Of course, bans on Facebook or YouTube are in any case almost impossible to enforce; firms may as well try to put a time limit on the numbers of minutes allowed each day for gossiping. A network permissive culture requires a degree of trust on the part of managers and responsibility on the part of employees; but to the extent that networks add internal economic value, this is usually a risk worth taking.
So, controlling access to networks in the workplace is futile (think about the coffee employee’s cell phone) and has negative consequence on recruitment, retention, and innovation among other things. At the same time, there’s an interesting conversation about the risks of networks, and not the kind of risks most people commonly think of:
Networks can build meritocracy, openness and democracy – but then can also exclude and discriminate. They can help to diffuse power away from hierarchical structures – but they can hoard power for themselves, too.
The authors point out that most social networks are opaque, compared to the transparency of the organizational chart. It’s easy to look at these and see who is connected. This is where responsibility comes in. Organizations should “go with the grain” of social networks and those engaged in social networks should be good network citizens and use the power they get from the network to further the goals of the organization. This comes together in the creation of a kind of network “constitution” or social contract, which supports good relationships, rather than hard rules. I think some companies, like Sun Microsystems, are starting on this journey through the creation of progressive social networking policies.
Some organizational approaches are to create Bespoke services, which are internally supported social-networking-like applications, and these carry some risk, as pointed out in one of the case studies:
The issue with our company is that the answer to every problem is a database. The problem is actually time – this utopian vision of being able to look up all this information and draw it down from the database is a bit unrealistic. – Interviewee, large professional services firm
I think Bespoke services can be successful if their purpose is thought of carefully and not as the solution to every problem. Every organization will likely need a portfolio of tools to support the needs of employees of today and tomorrow. The paper has a high philosophical tone, and the social networking analysis is very interesting ( I have to try that soon ). The idea here is to support the exploration of what those are in an open environment.
In this context, the fact that the person taking my order for coffee after tapping into her social network doesn’t bother me at all. I have a feeling it will help them and the organization they work for provide even better service in the long term. I hope this paper and blog post might help some have the conversation about whether (social networking tool) should be blocked or not.
Feel free to comment with your experiences in your organization, of course.
Social Networking For Work Explored : NPR – NPR Tech story on the increasing use of Twitter in the workplace. Nice discussion of how it's replacing e-mail. Worth a listen.
Prevent and Control High Blood Pressure: Mission Possible – Information from the NHLBI about hypertension control – unfortunately, it looks like the site has been abandoned. Another argument for a Web 2.0, more interactive approach.
"When I picked up my paper, the images were joyful, depicting happy same-sex couples who were finally able to apply for marriage licenses in our nation’s capital. I often tell my students that, in my humble opinion, one purpose of government is to help people be happy. The DC government did a good job on Wednesday." […]
