Envisioning 2.0

Over the past year, we have witnessed significant changes in the healthcare social media landscape – especially in the blogosphere. Healthcare providers are beginning to embrace blogs as a means of sharing information and their experiences with colleagues, patients and the general public. Major healthcare organizations, including the Centers for Disease Control and the publishers of the journal Health Affairs have launched Weblogs to facilitate dialogue about important subjects. These developments are cause for celebration.

However, fully embracing social media means much more than simply starting a blog or launching a podcast. It requires making a commitment to engaging in open and honest dialogue with stakeholders. Transparency and honesty are highly valued in the social media arena. However, this requirement has led many players in the healthcare system to fear it. Another reason is that many do not understand why social media is important or think those developing user generated content will have much impact on the healthcare system.

Dmitriy Kruglyak, publisher of The Medical Blog Network, has launched a grassroots campaign that, if successful, will clearly illustrate the power of the masses to shape the healthcare system and dialogue about it via social media. His initiative, the HealthTrain Open Healthcare Manifesto (inspired by the groundbreaking Cluetrain Manifesto), is an seeks to transform healthcare by “empowering individual consumers and professionals through blogs and social media.” What does the word “transform” imply? According to Kruglyak, it means:

• Developing “principles under which open media could become a force of positive change in [the] public health and healthcare system”

• Steering “clear of issues that may favor any stakeholder group over another, aside from promoting greater empowerment of individual healthcare consumers and professionals”

• Not offering “specific prescriptions for improving healthcare, as different people and groups have different ideas, [but] to propose general principles under which open expression and discussion can force system change for the better.”

Ultimately, Kruglyak’s HealthTrain Manifesto may lead to the widespread adoption of standards that will ensure creators of social media:

• Develop accurate content

• Engage in constructive dialogue that will lead to real improvements in the healthcare system

• Help healthcare organizations better understand the “rules of the road” so that they can engage social media in a relatively safe and respectful manner.

In my conversations with Kruglyak about the Manifesto, I asked him to outline the types of changes he would like to see in the healthcare system. He refused, saying that he would prefer not to make specific suggestions, as debate about them could overshadow the main objective of the project. After thinking about it, I agree. Given that healthcare is so far behind other industries in participating in social media, it is enough to get people to accept it. Once that happens, change will ultimately come.

I encourage you to learn more about the HealthTrain Manifesto. Blog, podcast and tell your friends and colleagues about it. Leave comments on the main Manifesto Webpage. If you support it, sign it. If you disagree with it, leave a comment. Debate will help improve the Manifesto and fuel conversation about it.

Much thanks to Kruglyak for conceiving and launching the HealthTrain Manifesto campaign.

This entry was posted on October 31, 2006 at 10:32 am and is filed under HealthTrain Manifesto, Healthcare and Technology, Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.