Social Media’s Promise for Public Health View more presentations from Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.

This month I’ve been trying to find answers to the question, why use social media?

In Part 1: A Cardiologists Perspective,  Dr. Wes a cardiologist and blogger outlined how busy health care providers can incorporate social media into their routine, in his post For Cardiologists: A Twitter Primer .

Part 2: Debbie Weil, Corporate Blogging Expert

Debbie Weil is a corporate social media strategist who has helped clients such as GlaxoSmithKline and the American College of Radiology embrace and execute social media marketing. She is a sought-after speaker and consultant and was named a Washington DC Top 100 Tech Titan. She shows clients how to leverage a blog as a powerful social media hub. (via www.debbieweil.com)

Her presentation Social Media 101 includes some great case studies, many of which are health related:

• Mayo Clinic


• Southwest Airlines


• CDC


• Whitehouse.gov


• American Red Cross


• 5 ways to write retweetable tweets by Mashable


• Transportation Security Administration

[slideshare id=3565656&doc=fosesocialmedia101-032510-100326134644-phpapp01]

Why use social media? This is a question that a lot of health care professionals wonder…I’m looking for answers throughout the month.

Thanks to Ed Bennett for this tweet…

Part 1: A Cardiologist’s Perspective

Dr.Wes ( www.drwes.blogspot.com)  did a great job breaking social media down into little bites the busy health care provider can digest. He hits on a key element— social media is only as involved as you’d like it to be. Don’t have time to read blogs? Join Twitter. Want to connect with your community? Make a Facebook page for your organization. There are so many flavors of social media, that it can be intimidating for the new comer. Dr. Wes quells any fears that social media is useless and/or time consuming in his post,” For Cardiologists: A Twitter Primer”.

Here is an excerpt:

With the explosion of social media, I am amazed at how many cardiologists I encounter who know little to nothing about blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Google Buzz and the like. “I’m too busy.” “Who has time for that stuff?” “I wouldn’t have time for anything else.” “How can I possibly keep up?”

And yet today, as more and more patients reach out to the web to find medical information or, more importantly, their doctor, physician specialists of all types should probably be asking, “Can I afford to not be connected with social media in one way or another?”

…To read more

Westby G. Fisher, MD, FACC is a board certified internist, cardiologist, and cardiac electrophysiologist (doctor specializing in heart rhythm disorders) practicing at NorthShore University HealthSystem, Evanston, IL and is a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine. He entered the blog-o-sphere in November, 2005.

                                                       [Source]

When I  encounter the lack of awareness and reservations about social media among health care professionals, I am somewhat at a loss in how to address their concerns. To me, a 20-something who grew up online I can immediately see social media’s powerful potential  for health care and public health. I think the most effective way to influence  the health care industry to accept social media is for professionals to speak out . Individual voices are incredibly influential in the social space (see:  Kevin MD,  Berci Mesko, Ed Bennett, Andre Blackman, among others). Even more, when organizations embrace social media it reinforces it’s legitimacy (see: Paul Levy, President and CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston).

This has inspired me to answer the question, Why use social media?. Throughout the month I will post answers from different perspectives within the health care and public health fields.