“… with health CIOs thinking about electronic medical record implementations, preparations for meeting the requirements of meaningful use of health IT, virtualization projects, HIPAA regulations, and the explosion of patient data and how to store it securely, social networking guidelines may not be getting the attention it deserves.”

While some healthcare organizations choose to avoid social media altogether either in the name of avoiding industry regulatory issues or to ban workplace social media access as a simple solution, neither approach is anything more than an ostrich sticking its head in the sand.  Any organization operating any part of its business online is affected by the social web. Implementing and enforcing social media policies is certainly something that CIOs will be tasked with, but an effective social media policy requires interaction between legal, HR, marketing, public relations and business managers, not just IT.

Presentation from Bridget M. Forney.

At one point or another, 80% of Internet users have looked online for health information.  Social networking sites, blogs and podcasts have opened up two-way communication lines for patients and providers.  The days of patients merely listening to doctors, associations or even print advertisements appear to be diminishing.

But patients aren’t the only users benefiting from social media.  Hospitals and healthcare providers can and should us social media to their benefit, as well.

In this presentation, Ascension Health takes an in-depth look at healthcare social media by looking at examples of successful users on Facebook and Twitter, healthcare social media best practices and provides visuals and statistics to highlight “Smarter Healthcare Using Social Media”.

Health Care Marketing, PR and Communications professionals around the world are working hard to understand how new media platforms like social media can help them better connect with patients and create more awareness.  Besides actual participation, there are many information channels (including the social web itself) to learn more including an upcoming event from Ragan and Kaiser Permanente.

Next month Ragan Communications and Kaiser Permanente are offering a Health Care Communicators Summit: A practical how-to conference for Health Care, Public Relations, Marketing, and Social Media on June 7-9, 2010 at the Kaiser Permanente Sidney R. Garfield Health Care Innovation Center in San Leandro, CA.

Some of the insights offered at this health care marketing and communications event include:

• Measure the success of blogs through Web analytics and media coverage
• Persuade execs to support social media and to blog—on a bare-bones budget.
• Engage patients and the public like never before with Twitter, Yammer, YouTube
• Use Facebook & Twitter (@healthcareos) —must haves!— to help customers, build communities and sell your brand

The event will feature speakers from The Health Care Blog, Kaiser Permanente, and social media strategist at The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Be sure to check out the pre-conference workshop hosted by Ragan CEO, Mark Ragan (@MarkRaganCEO).

Also to note, the conference includes two separate “tracks” – one for PR & marketing communications, and another for internal communications & social media.  To read the full invitation, or register, visit the Health Care Communicators Summit site.

How do hospitals measure their social media ROI? Are they simply tilting at windmills like Don Quixote? Too often, we find ourselves counting the number of Facebook fans or Twitter followers or the number of people who viewed You Tube videos, trying to justify engagement in social media.

However, the bigger question is whether hospitals can afford not to engage.

The post goes on to highlight 8 reasons why it’s no longer an option for hospitals to ignore social media in the marketing mix. We’ve summarized a few here:

• Improve customer service: When problems arise (i.e., a patient is unsatisfied with his or her hospital experience), hospitals can respond immediately and resolve the issue.
• Reach younger health care consumers: While most health care marketing dollars are spent on reaching the Baby Boomer segment, social media efforts can reach the 25-34 year old audience.
• Find blood donors: The article cites one hospital that has organized two blood drives via social media — using Twitter to promote and allowing sign-ups on Facebook.

Has your hospital integrated social media into its marketing mix? How did you convince hospital executives to move forward with the plan?

Gone are the days when health care marketers were full-time professional storytellers — focused on how best to package stories and engaged in one-way conversations.

Today, storytelling is just a part of the job of health care marketers. With the rise of social media, health care marketers must be focused on facilitating conversations and sharing information.

In this video from a presentation by Dan Dunlop of Jennings — a North Carolina-based advertising and branding firm — the opportunities for social media in health care are highlighted. Dunlop works to clear up some of the fears or misconceptions that some health care marketers may have regarding social media in the presentation, “Demystifying Social Media & Making It Relevant to Healthcare.”

Clearly, 2009 was a year of new beginnings for the health care industry — particularly in regards to the acceptance of social media channels like Twitter. But as we move into 2010, will that acceptance shrink, remain stagnant or skyrocket?

We don’t have a health care Twitter crystal ball. But we do have an interview with Phil Baumann, registered nurse and author, by HCPLive. Baumann shared with HCPLive his predictions for the future of Twitter for health care marketing:

Since writing 140 Health Care Uses of Twitter, I’ve been very impressed with the spike in interest in using social technologies in health care. On Twitter alone, there’s a growing community of patients, doctors, nurses, healthcare marketers and others passionate about bringing about changes in health care. I was particularly impressed with the rise in Twitter chats to spur discussion, such as Health Care Social Media (#hcsm). …

I look forward to 2010. My prediction: 2010 is going to be a huge year in social media in general. We’ll start to get over the shiny-new-toy mentality and get into a more let’s-get-on-with-it approach. Healthcare will probably proceed much more cautiously than other industries, but I believe the continued and growing public discussions will help catalyze the revolution.

Additional points made by Baumann on the future of Twitter for health care marketing include:

• FDA’s November public hearing on social media — the first of its kind — demonstrates the dire need for more attention to social media in pharma and other related industries.
• Saleforce’s introduction of Chatter, a social networking tool to help businesses keep tabs on sales and customer service, shows the power of micro-sharing as a communication and collaboration medium.
• If additional major players — SAP, for example — enter this market, health care organizations are more likely to adopt micro-sharing.

What predictions do you have for widespread adoption of social media channels by the health care field?

For health care organizations first embarking on a social media strategy, there’s no definitive formula for what works and what doesn’t work. Perhaps the greatest tool health care organizations have for developing a social media strategy are others’ success stories.

The Significant Science blog recently interviewed John Sharp of Cleveland Clinic, which has successfully rolled out a social media strategy that includes blogging, microblogging and participation on other social networking sites.

Here’s what Sharp had to say about the stakeholders within healthcare organizations that should be involved in launching social media efforts:

Managing social media in health care organizations requires a broad assembling of stake holders who are of a common mindset. These should include: marketing, public relations, information technology, medical education, medical librarians and clinical staff including physicians and nurses. The mix should include early adopters as well as those relatively new to social media to provide a balance. Additional stakeholders to consider are: a patient representative, an attorney (at least as a consultant), and employee communications.

Additional takeaways from the interview include:

• The future is mobile. The marketing team at Cleveland Clinic is now working on optimizing wellness tools for the mobile web.
• Health 2.0 and Medicine 2.0 are two of the most important, useful conferences for health care marketers embarking on social media.
• Health care organizations should develop a social media policy for employees, paying particular attention to the security of individual social networking sites.

And with Twitter being one of the fastest growing social media tools of recent years, it’s a good place for hospitals to start.

For hospitals unsure of how to use Twitter to reach health consumers, SMUG (Social Media University, Global) blogger Lee Aase provides some examples of how hospitals have been using Twitter.

Aase’s list is not exhaustive of all hospital Twitter activity, of course. But it includes Tweets on surgical cases, medical presentations and training, medical research and more. Here is a sample of some of the Twitter activity referenced:

• The first hospitals to Tweet a live procedure in the emergency room was Henry Ford Health System (@HenryFordNews) and Bill Ferris (@Billfer).
• The Mayo Clinic (@mayoclinic) recently conducted a Twitter chat with @vmontori regarding an article on diabetes and blood-sugar control.
• Aurora Health Care (@Aurora_Health) Tweeted a knee operation – and received a good amount on media attention for it, as well.
• Angie Anania (@angieanania) of HealthOne Presbyterian/St. Luke’s in Denver Tweeted a recent surgical procedure and teamed with the area CBS affiliate to promote through media coverage.

It’s clear from these Tweets that some hospitals are beginning to truly understand the potential impact of reaching out to patients, patient family and other medical personnel via social media.

This health care social media video, created by the organizers of the HealthCare New Media Marketing Conference, offers a host of interesting statistics that prove the use of online media outlets for gaining access to health care information.

Did you know?

• 60 million consumers now use new media to share their health experiences online
• 216 US hospitals use social media
• 142 US hospitals have You Tube channels
• 132 US hospitals maintain Twitter accounts
• 83 US hospitals have Facebook pages
• Approximately 1,200 Facebook  communities advocate for cures for chronic illnesses
• 72% of e-patients search for medical information right before or after a docotr’s visit
• 93% of e-patients say the Internet  has made it possible to get the medical information they need

Learn more about how health care consumers are using the Internet — and social media specifically — to become more informed and educated.

It was the perfect storm: As social media sites were gaining in popularity, health care was becoming more expensive and doctors’ time was becoming more finite and valuable.

It was only a matter of time before patients and their families began turning to health care social networks for medical information and even emotional support.

The Wall Street Journal discusses the trend in an insight article:

Online health sites have been booming in the past five years … Many of the sites have recently experienced heavy traffic from users seeking information on the H1N1 virus. Officials of the Health 2.0 Conference, which tracks the industry, estimate that the number of such sites climbed to nearly 500 from about 35 four years ago.

The sites generally have evolved from the encyclopedic-styled WebMD, becoming more interactive and case-study- oriented, such as Inspire, PatientsLikeMe and CureTogether.

“You’re seeing right now an expansion phase of the relatively early part of the technology cycle,” said Matthew Holt, co-founder of the Health 2.0 Conference. “There’s a significant advance in what sites are doing.”

The article discusses in detail how several patient-focused health care social networks are evolving:

• WiserTogether: This site was created by a mother in the D.C. area to allow expectant parents to share the experiences of other parents in their age group and who have experienced similar circumstances.
• Inspire: This social networking site was founded in 2005 and currently consisting of 130,000 members. It allows members to share their health problems and experiences with different treatments.