I photographed this advertisement while riding on BART in San Francisco recently - it struck me as a creative way to engage Generation Y, and in 2008, a reminder that for some people, online connections are becoming dominant to in-person ones (that and the fact that no one is advertising to Generation X, we’re the generation lost to marketers…). I liked it also because it supports my occasional motto, “in person is the new online.” On a more basic level, though, it speaks to the revolution that Web2.0 is creating around community - as I learned in the patient portal work I have done, these online connections can actually strengthen rather than weaken the offline ones.

You can see the rest of Dentyne’s innovative campaign on their site - they missed one crucial detail in their appeal to the Web 2.0 generation, though, by not making this content embeddable, which should be the case for a campaign like this. From my own experience, I know that big companies are often not of one personality, so there can be some disconnects as large organizations move into the future. In the meantime, enjoy the images.

This photograph is from a session using Tapulous’ Twinkle software, which is a location-aware version of Twitter. This exchange is evidence that the iPhone’s most powerful innovation is not 3G, it’s GPS, which Apple, Inc., has now seeded into the mainstream, just as it did with a host of other technologies, like Wi-Fi.

What is shown here is community being created with complete strangers based on location - this exchange happened when my tweet was broadcast to everyone within a 1 mile radius of the San Francisco airport.

Some of you out there have been expressing your reservations about Twitter, Friendfeed, and the like. Here’s a nice article about both. Don’t be reserved, these are important technologies that will have applications in healthcare. Get your Twitter accounts now. Post your ideas in the comments, as well, please!

And San Francisco, thanks for being nice. You never disappoint.

• How crowdsourcing helps some –but not all research activities - Blog post about appropriate uses of crowdsourcing - not for everything.

• Y Combinator: Startup Ideas We’d Like to Fund - Note the criticism of Enterprise software. It's time for Enterprise 2.0, probably starting with lighter weight packages used by consumers now, and then gradually tweaked, not the other way around.

• Beyond Blogs : Businessweek - A refresh of Businessweek's landmark 2005 story about Social Media and businessweek. Interesting update: prediction of mass firings of employees who blog (being "Dooced") has not happened, with the exception of a few well publicized cases, like this one. Perhaps Web2.0 is subtly changing the expectation of transparency on the part of organizations and their customers - participation is becoming more of a norm.

• Ning - Create your own Social Networks! - As it says, a way to create a social network. What if a physician created one for her patients (who opted in)?
• The Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack Trial (ALLHAT) - ALLHAT treatment information
• 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.
• Sixty minutes of health reform education: Frontline is required watching - Overview of international health systems - incentives seem more aligned, and of interest, when reforms are society/community focused, the professions understand their utility.
• NEJM — Characteristics of Patients with Uncontrolled Hypertension in the United States - "Undiagnosed hypertension and treated but uncontrolled hypertension occur largely under the watchful eye of the health care system;"

See: The State of the Facebook Platform | 20bits. The number of active users has declined 27 % since January. Early adopters are leading the pack out.

I deactivated in December, 2007 (See: “I deactivated my Facebook Account, is LinkedIn Next?“), reactivated for a few days earlier this year, and then deactivated again. For good.

I did cancel my LinkedIn account, too. As I discussed in a post about it, if everyone has their own blog and RSS feed we can just communicate through those.

And I still think every patient should have a blog that their physician has access too through the electronic health record.

The Genie Industries video is especially compelling because everything they discuss is applicable in health care. What if we substituted “patient care” for making scissor lifts - we would see huge strides in improvement. Also, just upgraded the software that powers this blog. Viva open source.

• Genie Industries, Spotlight - A nice video of Genie Industry's work promoting LEAN and the customer focus in its manufacturing efforts
• Popularity Context Plugin Fix for Wordpress 2.5 -
• The Wisdom of Patients: Health Care Meets Online Social Media - CHCF.org -
• From Al Gore?s Chief Speechwriter: Simple Tips for a Damn Good Presentation (Plus: Breakdancing) - Great advice on giving presentations. The one I like best - it’s not about you, it’s about the audience.

I am in Oakland, California, today, participating in an discussion sponsored by Kaiser Permanente about Web 2.0 applications in health care. As part of the discussion I presented my story as a physician who wrote a blog internally for our medical group, and since October, 2007, on the public Internet (here).

From 2005-2007 I managed an internal blog that ended up having 748 posts total, so for 2 years, I posted something almost every business day, along with other physician informaticists on my team with me. That’s quite a commitment. This blog has 298 posts on it since October, 2007. I actually never thought I’d keep a blog, but I’m (a) glad I’m doing it and (b) glad I have a story to share about it as a Health Information Technology leader. I want people to know how I am serving them.

I also got to moderate/interact with two industry experts in the field, Tim Collins, SVP of Experiential Marketing for Wells Fargo Bank, and Lee Aase, Manager for Syndication and Social Media for the Mayo Clinic. It’s an honor to meet other industry leaders who are embracing this technology, and they are embracing it. I know this is the future (or the present…)

Given my experience, the idea of patients bringing their user generated content into the physician patient relationship really interests me. Could an electronic health record of the future subscribe to specially tagged RSS feeds from our patients? I don’t think physicians can or would be following 2,000 lives worth of lifestreams. However, if there’s something in a patient’s life that they want us to know about and can get it to us without double entry, I think that information would change the content of our relationship a lot. And in a good way.

• WMS Solution Components - SenseWear.com - A metabolic measurement system that doctors and patients can use to manage weight.
• National Health Information Network News - The Business Case | NHIN Watch - Running news service on NHIN status
• The Pill Phone - Verizon - Impressive - adherence is heating up as a Health2.0 app
• Social Media University, Global (SMUG) - Blog about social media and public relations professionals by Lee Aase
• Pharma Marketing Blog: Rejiggering the Marketing Mix a la Merck - How pharmaceuticals may be using Web2.0 in the future