Healthcare Daily Digest for 1 February 2013: Social Media and Healthcare CIOs

I haven’t taken to Twitter. I have an account, sure — @MikeBevel_iA — and I even send out messages from time to time. But it doesn’t nestle into my daily doings in the way, say, Facebook does. I’m not on my phone much (the two people I call the most are my partner and the pizza place up the road which means my life is a “Cathy” cartoon or I’m having an affair with a series of delivery drivers or (d) all of the above), and I think Twitter works best for people who want to — communicate isn’t the right word — maybe proclaim on the go.

I bring all of this up because (a) I order a LOT of pizza, you guys; and (b) this article that ponders why more healthcare CIOs aren’t all over Twitter and other social media platforms. “As I was researching several hundred CIOs and compiling the list [of the Top 70 Social CIOs, because that’s a useful use of one’s time and an important list that has a LOT of value /sarcams], I realized something that jumped out of the page: the lack of a dominant voice in social media for the health care CIO. With only one health care CIO in the top 10 and a total of five CIOs in the Top 70, the voice of the health care CIO is largely absent in social media.”

That a blogger for the Huffington Post would be adorably surprised that healtchare CIOs weren’t tweeting everything in between liking status updates on Facebook and whatever the hell Pinterest is (DON’T YOU DARE TELL ME so help me god I DON’T WANT TO KNOW) is not surprising. What I found sort of… ugh, maybe “old person disappointing,” was this:

“In a recent study covering mobile and social technologies in health care, it was noted that: ’90 percent of people ages 18-24 said they would trust health information they found on social media channels.’”

This could be a sign that I am simply nearing sweet, sweet death — but maybe those ‘tweens should not be turning to Twitter or Tumblr or some third thing that I probably don’t even know about that’s on the Internet like what, MySpace? Is that even still around? LiveJournal? GeoCities?

But what do I know, right? “The study also found that more than one in four hospitals have a social media presence and that 60 percent of doctors believe social media improves the quality of care.” Be sure to follow me on Twitter and explain why crowdsourcing healthcare through social media is a great idea. And then, I’ll show you a pic of the weird mole I have. Sigh.

Here are some other headlines to get you through the weekend:

I’ll Give You a Quarter if You Eat This Broccoli: “When it comes to health care, what we need isn’t simply good treatment for everyone, which is now the law of the land. We need to incentivize better choices, one person at a time.

What You Don’t Know is Killing You: Or, at least, that’s the argument this whitepaper, “Access to Health Information Under International Human Rights Law,” is making. “Every day, tens of thousands of children, women and men die needlessly for want of simple, low-cost interventions – interventions that are often already locally available.”