john-norris.net

Since May of 2009, I have been posting almost daily tweets on how healthcare orgs might use social  media.  @John_Norris with the tag #hcsm

I finished up the first 100 tips  in late September 2009.

Below are the next 100 tweets.

The example I use is Twitter, but any microblogging and socially connected platform would do.  I put together some of my thoughts in a presentation, “Hyper-Local Social Media and Healthcare” or better known as “@mayoclinic has good info, why should I listen to you?”

The next 100 or so-

I wonder if there is a way to use tweets, or social media, to share dedicated parking places amongst special patients?

What do you take when you are going into surgery? How about in an ambulance? Your own robe & pillow? Teddy Bear ?
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Lively was a virtual world run by Google. It only lasted about 5 months before Google shut it down. I spent some time there, created an area devoted to healthcare support groups, made a video, and had some thoughts about its demise.

I also collected some data about the various support groups. I feel there is not enough data to use for my previous analysis of other virtual worlds, but I include some of it here for those that are curious.

Method

I collected information on Lively on November 20, 2008. At that point Lively had been around for four months and it was known to be closing at the end of the year.

Browsing through Lively’s places, I found 19 healthcare areas. While Lively did not have groups with members, one could see the number of unique visitors to each area.

Many of the places I would categorize as miscellaneous, and some were more educational than support areas. Because there were so few heathcare areas, I included the healthcare educational areas as being support ‘groups’ and placed them under miscellaneous. I did not do this for the other virtual worlds in this study.

Results and Discussion:

Due to the small amount of data, not much discussion would be fruitful. The results are simply published here for those who are interested.

There were 185 total visitors to all areas. “Addictions House” garnered 96 visits, “Multiple Sclerosis Sucks” had 36, and the rest of the areas had ten visitors or less. This is indicative of the long tail effect.

I thought on Lively might be able to tie it into Google’s Personal Health Records project.

rexlibris, a magazine for librarians, put up a nice interview about my work in Second Life and the Path of Support.

I’m Knoh Oh in Second Life. The Path is a way to show people inworld the diversity of healthcare support groups…and is growing so fast it is hard to keep track!

Do the types of healthcare support groups differ in the worlds of Second Life, Kaneva, There and IMVU?  In what worlds are there more groups concerning mental health than disabilities. In what worlds is the opposite true?  How does this compare with types of groups in the real world?  And why might there be differences?

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Since May of this year, I have been posting a daily tweet on how healthcare orgs can use social  media.  @John_Norris with the tag #hcsm

The example I use is Twitter, but any microblogging and socially connected platform would do.  I put together some of my thoughts in a presentation, “Hyper-Local Social Media and Healthcare” or better known as “@mayoclinic has good info, why should I listen to you?”

Here’s my tips so far in all their twittery goodness-

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The Guiding Lights group in Second Life offers 6 session course on doing peer support within Second Life.

It is put on by Avalon Birke, RL Board Certified Counselor and psychotherapist; Kat Klata, highly experienced online healthcare support person.

I finished all 6 courses, and they were quite good.  Lots of role play, outstanding guest lecturers, and  super classmates.

If you are thinking about, or already doing, online peer support, I think you will find these classes helpful. I highly recommend them.  You need not go to every meeting if you do not want to pursue certification.

I graduated with honors for the work I did on a group discussion simulator.

More about  Guiding Lights Peer Specialist Training.

I put together some ideas for healthcare orgs to add value to their local communities.

Basically, it’s getting past the PR broadcast stage of tweeting and onto chatting with the folks in the neighborhood.

Twitter just happens to be the tool for the example. This can be carried out in a variety of ways.

I’m especially interested in what works with mobile technologies (cell/smart phones) as well as web.  With a simple web page, those that do not want to be seen as following a particular medical issue can still access the information.

Update:

Lee Aase, who works on the @mayoclinic Twitter account, posted a very thoughtful response to this slideshow.  I think we all agree that local and internationally renowned expertise can complement each other.  …and he is a good sport about the whole thing.

The August issue is all about healthcare.  I hope it helps folks realize the opportunities virtual worlds can afford.

Oh, and my article “The Growth and Direction of Healthcare Support Groups in Virtual Worlds” is included.

Much thanks to the editors and reviewers for working with me and getting the information out there.

CorvallisHealth chirps out tweets you can use for healthier living in Corvallis, Oregon.

Throughout the week I will be tweeting 140 characters of locally focused, health information.  I’ll keep the tweets down to at the most, one message a day, not force you to go to a webpage, and keep it organized to help you plan your time.

CorvallisHealth is also a bit of an experiment.  I am a biomedical informaticist, which is someone studying heathcare and information.  As part of my research, and career path, I have been looking into tools such as Twitter to help convey healthcare information.  I want to see what I can do even without being professionally associated with a local healthcare organization. (You can find my more corporate related medical tweetings at john-norris as well as other healthcare related work on the rest of this website.)  So, in exchange for what I think is some helpful information, you may find some things changing as I try out new ideas.

As this experiment includes you, I thought it would be helpful about who I am and what I am doing.  This might also help folks send me constructive comments.

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I’ve placed a link on my resume to my Twitter feed.

I had been exploring Twitter in general, but it has now become a major microblogging tool for me.  I am publishing ideas on how healthcare orgs can use Twitter to help members of their local community and themselves.

Updated the 2002 to present area as well.