SocialButterfly

CDC Launches Re-Design, Focus on Tools

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009 | Health 2.0, Public Health | 5 Comments

Today, I received a tip that Monday night, CDC.gov launched it’s re-designed Web site–placing a larger emphasis on tools. I think it’s looking pretty good myself–especially the “connect” icons as I’m a large fan of communicating visually. Plus, icons are fun, right? What about you? What are your thoughts?

I think one of my all-time favorite features is the CDC.gov Tag Cloud. According to the Web site, “[the] Tag Cloud is an alphabetized list of the most popular search topics on the CDC.gov Web site. The text size of the term shows its relative popularity: bigger terms are more popular than smaller ones.” Even better, each term is click-able for information about that specific topic. Here’s a quick snap shot:

It’s simple. It’s user-generated (via consumer search queries). It offers a quick snapshot to what consumers are concerned about in regards to public health. And, thus, it’s powerful. And, it communicates all this and more, visually. For a visual learner like myself, I give it two thumbs up. I’m envisioning that one day, we might be able to update these types of queries in real-time, though from my own experience, I also know it’s going to be a challenge.

Tags: cdc, CDC.gov, health, Public Health, resources, Social Media, tag cloud, tools, Web site, Web site re-design

Crossing the line or a Creative Cross? MySpace Research with “Dr. Meg”

Tuesday, January 6th, 2009 | Blog Talk, Ethics and Legality, Health 2.0, Interesting Articles, Privacy and Security, Public Health, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networking, campaigns | No Comments

Have you heard of Dr. Meg? Maybe not, but if you’re a teen on MySpace you may have. Interesting research that was first published in the January issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine showed that adult supervision of MySape can raise adolescents’ awareness of how accessible their profiles are online.

To come to this conclusion, Dr. Megan Moreno, a pediatrician and adolescent medicine specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and fellow researchers, embarked on two separate studies to explore this issue further. Both research studies are to 1) encourage increased parental and adult supervision by family and friends, and 2) to potentially encourage similiar outreach approaches.

Dilemma: To Cross or not to Cross the Ethical Line

The research is very interesting, however, I feel an ethical discussion must be had. I am not saying Moreno’s approach was wrong or right, but I think we should slow down and discuss it further to learn and develop best practices, as well as ethical guidelines, especially since others may adopt this practice towards younger youth.

Headlines have buzzed about “Busybody Dr. Meg,” concluding that this outreach and behavior-change may offer hope to future, similiar methods being implemented by others. To me, I feel there can be high-levels of concerns with a universal application of this approach unless the strategy and concept is stretched. Including, but not limited to - the age those being contacted, how people are being contacted, the language and type of approach involved, the privacy and the stalking-like component, among other items. Additionally, does it matter who, as in which type of organizations embark on this strategy? For example, I can foresee potential problems if adopted by government health agencies and citizens’ concerns over freedom of expression. Curious on others’ thoughts on this!

Background About the Studies

Study 1. For the first, researchers located 190 MySpace public profiles in a single urban ZIP code, randomly selected from 10 U.S. Census areas with the lowest average income because researchers wanted to target adolescents who might have less access to doctors.

All the users involved revealed that they were 18 to 20 years old and their pages included three or more references to sex, drinking, drug use or smoking. Of the 190 profiles selected, half were sent “Dr. Meg” e-mails. After three months, 42% of those getting a “Dr. Meg” e-mail had either set their profiles to “private,” or they had removed both sexual or substance usage references. 29% of those not contacted made changes over the three-month period.

Study 2. In another study, Moreno and other researchers looked at 500 randomly selected MySpace profiles of 18-year-olds nationwide and found that more than half contained references to risky behavior such as sex, drinking and violence.

Your Turn: Crossing the line or a creative cross?

What do you think? I agree that there is a growing issue and concern for online safety and online identity of teens, youth, young adults and people in general, and this is an interesting new development to the field. How can you see this approach being adopted by your organization, or what would be your reaction if you were approached? Am I over-reacting?

photo credit: LoonSky

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Tags: behavior, delimma, Dr. Meg, ethics, government, health, health communications, medicine, Megan Moreno, MySpace, online access, online privacy, online research, outreach, privacy, Public Health, research, social networking

Defining Health 2.0

Wednesday, April 30th, 2008 | Case Studies and New Orgs/Campaigns, Health 2.0, Identity Crisis, Interesting Articles, Public Health, Social Marketing, Useful Tools | 9 Comments

According to a January 2008 study titled How America Searches, Health and Wellness:

• In the past 12 months, 59% of adults reference the internet to find or access health and wellness information.
• 67% of adult searchers use general search engines as an online tool or resource for health information and only 7% referred to online drug advertisements.
• 36% of adult searchers use online health information to see what other consumers say about a medication or treatment

Because of statistics like those above, the concept of ‘Health 2.0′ has increased its usage and importance. Simply, Health 2.0 = the merging of social media into healthcare. However, others see the movement of Health 2.0 as something much wider and farther reaching. Even Google image searching shows a variety of more complex definitions. I’d be interested to see how you all define it for yourselves or for your practice.

Examples of Health 2.0

Websites

• Carol.com , started in 2006, is the marketplace for care, allowing hospitals and providers to ‘bid’ for consumers’ care
• Vitals.com, allows patients to review their current doctor’s or a potential doctor’s reviews and ratings
• DoubleCheckMD, allows consumers to check for potential drug interactions quickly and easily
• American Well , creates a healthcare marketplace where consumers and physicians come together online to acquire and provide convenient and immediate healthcare services

Wikis

• Wikipedia
• FluWiki
• WiserWiki, a medical and healthcare information wiki edited exclusively by physicians
• Clinfo Wiki, a wiki devoted to clinical informatics
• Ask Dr. Wiki, allows those with a medical background to publish review articles, clinical notes, pearls and/or medical images to the wiki. The main focus has been on Cardiology and Electrophysiology, but they have expanded to other areas.

Blogs

• DiabetesMine, a blog all about diabetes
• HealthMatters (Healthline), a collection of weblogs by professionals, covering different aspects of health, wellness, treatments, and recent advances
• WebMD, provides health and health-related information

Social Networks

• OrganizedWisdom, the first human-powered search service for health information
• PatientsLikeMe, find patients who are receiving the same or similar treatments
• DailyStrength, helps one find support groups
• Sermo, a community for physicians to share information, questions and observations amongst themselves, encouraging collaboration
• ReliefinSite, helps with pain managemnt
• NursesRecommendDoctors
• TheHealthCareScoop

Video-Sharing

• ICYou, the source of healthcare videos and videos related to health information
• Cleveland Clinic on Google Video
• TauMed, a virtual health community where one can search and share information on a variety of health topics

Online Forums

• Revolution Health Groups
• Google Health Groups, find support and community groups
• iVillage

Podcasts

• Johns Hopkins Medical Podcasts
• NIH Podcasts
• NY Times Health Pocasts
• CDC Travelers Health
• dLife podcasts for diabetes, information and inspiration for those with diabetes

Caution

Health 2.0 researchers warn that patients should be cautious about posting personal health-related information through unsecured social media as health insurance providers could gain access to this information, as well as potential employers.

Future

Social Media combined with health information, patients and user-generated content can be used for:

• User-generated health ratings for hospitals and doctors
• Bridge the gap between doctor and patient
• Bring communities together in new, innovative ways
• Establishing patients as opinion leaders
• Managing health and managing community health in new ways

For specific case studies and more information, view this report titled: The Wisdom of Patients: Health Care Meets Online Social Media prepared for the California Healthcare Foundation by Jane Sarasohn-Kahn.

Questions to Ponder

• Is Health 2.0 helpful or harmful?
• Is the content trustrworthy? Does it matter? Will consumers take the information at face value?
• Why are patients labeled as consumers? What does this mean/say about how health 2.0 is being approached?
• What are the ethical concerns?
• What are the privacy concerns?

Can’t wait to read your insights in the comments. =)

Tags: Blogs, examples, health, Health 2.0, health 2.0 apps, health 2.0 definition, health 2.0 sites, health information, health law, health privacy, healthcare, healthy, information, online forums, podcasts, research, Social Media, social media research, social networks, video-sharing, Web 2.0, webmd, wikis