Social Media and Healthcare

I have not written much on social media in healthcare, which might range from a practice with a facebook site for marketing, to a surgeon tweeting that the gallbladder is out so the family can relax a bit sooner, to a Groupon for reduced botox, or to a system which texts patients to motivate them to eat better or take their meds on time.  But instead of commenting myself, this blog entry will mainly be a list of relevant links, including a list of great bloggers and interesting news stories. 

Healthcare Social Media Bloggers
* 33 charts focuses on social media in health and is written by Bryan Vartabedian, MD.
* http://www.tedeytan.com/ is written by Ted Eytan, MD - an extraordinary thinker and blogger who often writes about the impact of social media and web 2.0 in healthcare.

Stories of Interest
* Could Facebook be your Platform for Care Coordination?  (e-Care Mgt Blog, May, 2011)
* Social media could 'accelerate clinical discovery' (Article about PatientsLikeMe.com, April, 2011)

* Five social media tips for docs worried about HIPAA (April, 2011): Great advice about how to understand that HIPAA actually promotes email and other electronic forms of communication - and is often misunderstood due to paranoid legal beagles!
* What do Physicians Really Think about Social Media?:  A series of blogs by Dr. Ted Eytan based on interviews with doctors from Sermo as well as some Academic sites (Spring, 2011).
* Social media tools may reduce attrition in online health programs... and prove an effective way to boost participation in online health programs, according to researchers at the University of Michigan Medical School (Dec, 2010)
* AMA Guide to Social Media (Nov, 2010): The American Medical Association has adopted a new policy that gives guidance to physicians using social media.
* Tips on mitigating risk of social networking in healthcare organizations (Nov, 2010): like it sounds!
* 6 reasons to manage and archive your social media (May, 2011)
* Facebook friends with your doctor: good medicine or ethically 'icky'? (Aug, 2012) - Advice is to educate in general (eg professional FB or twitter page for education), not create a personal social interaction.