I just spent the weekend in Haleyville, AL, the location of the first 911 emergency call and that technology has saved millions of lives. So I am not so quick to say social media is “All That” regarding life saving milestones.

It is however, undisputed, that social media allows for rich information sharing. When that happens, people become smarter, more confident, more comfortable and can make better decisions about their healthcare. Will those characteristics save lives? sure. Social media enables people to overcome time and geography. But clearly there were plenty of cancer support groups long before social media. I caution those that think a Second Life is a replacement for a doctor’s office. In the case of the routine lab report result, to me email or a web portal will do just fine,

Second Life, graphics and 3D worlds are overkill. In the case of disclosing when a patient has a life threatening sickness, nothing beats in-person, or in the situation of a combined team of specialists around the world, I like the video option with someone that is trusted and caring with the patient. Sure I advocate social media in applications that are appropriate, but I also would ask why a few times before making the statement that social media is a must for healthcare.

Great post. It got me thinking about University of Chicago Medical Center’s recent decision to do pre-care triage in their ED to refer people to less expensive community hospitals for ER services. The Chicago Tribune article reported that U. of C. found 40% of all ED patients did not need their services and could receive the care they needed – for less money – closer to home. That, in itself, is a pretty bold move, but what if they took it further – like you suggested – and leveraged social media tools to do the pre-care triage at home before patients even arrived on scene? They could do an initial assesment and diagnosis, share that information with the hospital they refer the patients to, thereby saving (1) patients an unnecessary drive to U. of C. and (2) the community hospital some time/work at intake.

Thanks for keeping the fires of social media innovation & healthcare burning!
- Katie Adams (@katieisawriter)

Phil–I agree with your point about privacy. We need to take a long, hard look at our privacy laws and how the impact the way we care for our patients in this new Web 2.0 world. Many of these laws and policies were put in place years ago and need to be reviewed with a lens for the current state of business.

Alexandra–Great ideas, thanks for sharing. I especially like the ideas around patients sharing data directly. I plan on looking into both of those example more in-depth.

Candee–Interesting perspective about integrating marketing/PR into the cirriculum for physicians/dentists. We both know the younger professionals are using and embracing these tools–we just need to bring along the Gen Xers and boomers now.

Tom–Completely agree with your take that customer service is a huge opportunity. We have a tremendous opportunity in the next few years to use these tools to educate our patients about the health care system and to deliver basic care. I think patients are ready for this, too. Just look at Frank and Comcast–people will find and utilize the new channels, just give them a chance.