Friday, March 12, 2010

Livestrong CEO: Social Media Will Change Health Care Forever

I was fortunate enough to witness the inaugural conference of #SXSH yesterday in Austin and the incredible discussions on social media best practices and strategies for the health care industry.  The event, the brainchild of four twitterati rock stars, was real evidence of the power of social media for the public good.
          It was wonderful to  meet many people I admire on Twitter and discover how much online dialog accerlates real-life relationships.  And the event? No attitudes. No hierarachy.  No silos. Just possibility and the power of collaboration.
          In fact, this was probably the first conference I've ever attended where I actually wanted  to attend the networking event.
          Key words:  Authentic.  Transparent.  Real-time.  Collaboration.  Accessible.  Relate.  Innovate.  Champion.  Create!
          Livestrong CEO Doug Ulman opened the day with an inspiring talk about the role of social media in transforming health care. He compared the state of social media at the time of his own cancer diagnosis (remember Eudora?) and how it is now where on-line communities can help ...."patients make better informed decisions in real time."
       Doug, who knocked me out (I'm laughing at talking at once above) with his great warmth and sincerity,  gives three reasons why social media will change health care:
  • It's free and accessible
  • Information: available in 'real-time' (not something you find out six months AFTER you've selected a treatment, for example)
  • Patient - centered and driven.
       "Social Media will change health care forever, " Ulman said.  "At the end of the day, it's people coming together and interacting that will change the paradigm."
       
       Ulman was just the beginning.  Additional highlights included:
  • Jenn Texada, who discussed the both the rewards and challenges of monitoring social media activity for MD Anderson, the national cancer facility in Houston that serves more than 100,000 patients a year.  
  • Greg Matthews, changes the game for Humana with an "innnotation team" that developed a pilot program of gaming for kids that monitored their activity levels with a pedometer.  Result:  a 35% increase in activity level.
  • Small group discussions with Ed Bennett, University of Maryland Systems, and Dr. Bryan Vartabedian, http://www.33charts.com/
  • Two extraordinary afternoon speakers, from Fabio Gratton, co-founder and chief innovation officer of Ignite Health.  His case study on #FDAsm: great example of technology solving problem of too much information through data aggregation.  
  • Last address we were able to hear was the genesis of n the Pillbox system for rapid identification of pills http://pillbox.nlm.nih.gov /via @doctorblogs by David Hale (@lostonroute66).  Hard to grasp but until he developed this webpage a visual identification system (online) did not exist.  Talk about an incredible public service!!
        This was just a fast overview of some of the conference highlights.  If you'd like more in-depth reading, cut and paste #SXSH into your Twitter search feature and every tagged posts and links will appear.

        More to come.  Happy weekend all!

        Jody





Photos courtesy of Barbara Peyton, Barbara Peyton and Associates, Montgomery, Texas.   

11 comments:

Debbie said...

Very Cool! Thanks for sharing this quick update! I can tell you were very inspired and excited about what was happening there! I feel better informed on many levels because of Twitter and Facebook and you!
Love, Deb

Jody said...

Deb,
Thanks again for stopping by -- if I could have captured even 1/10th of the intellectual energy I would consider it a job well done. Hands down one of the best conferences I've ever attended. Plus with the added benefit of even more information to study since most (if not all) of the participants blogged and tweeted about the event.
love,
Jody

Unknown said...

i was sorry i couldn't attend the gathering. thanks for your update. very inspiring!ellen

joinourloop said...

wow! That is really interesting!!!!
I know not all doctors love us being on the web, but I think the trend to more informed patients is a good one!

Jody said...

Yes, that issue (doctors not wanting patients to have "too much information") came up in different conversations. Hats off to the progressive social media/communications peeople there who had the courage to take a stand with their hospital administrations and say: this IS better. I admired these people a great deal.

Thanks for great comments!
Jody

Tami said...

I read your beautiful account on how you helped your friend/hygenist Anita, so I decided to visit. My family and I went up to Austin to meet Doug last spring. Your description of him is head-on!

In fact, we met Doug because of Twitter. Because of our Twitter connection, he agreed to write the foreword for my book, From Incurable to Incredible: Cancer Survivors Who Beat the Odds,which will be out this spring. Social media is an amazing thing.

Annemieke said...

Dear Jody, so happy you had a great experience! I think Doug met his equal when he met you and got the opportunity to thank you for your amazing cancer advocacy! Thank you for sharing this with us and I hope to learn more on this topic through you. Love, Annemieke

A. Lo said...

Hi Jody, I happened to see a link to your blog post floating out on Twitter, and I'm so glad I clicked on it! It was great to read your thoughts about SXSH and to meet you at the "unconference" (I was the in the blue dress - @AbbyLowe). I'm looking forward to following you on Twitter as well!

Jody said...

Abby,
Thanks for stopping by. It was terrific to meet you as well. I still want to follow up with you on some of the things we discussed.

Also did a guest post today for CURE magazine on the conference -- a little different take. I'll be getting in touch with you soon.

Have a great weekend,
Jody

Jody said...

Tami,
Social media IS amazing and an incredible asset in helping me get to know women like you who I might not have met otherwise! In fact, I'm going to hop over to Join Our Loop to read your post. I just saw a tweet that you had a post yesterday, and I've been meaning to write and thank you for stopping by here:)

Please let me know when your book comes out. I will gladly read and write about your journey!

Take care,
Jody

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