With a boom in health related blogs, information sites are now gravitating toward social media.  Patients are increasingly sharing medical experiences and seeking advice from other patients who share similar health concerns.   Online communities are giving patients support, personal experiences, and direct answers – something they cannot always get from experts.

While patients are gravitating toward social media, a recent ClickZ article shares that some healthcare marketers seem to be hesitant:

Healthcare professionals can’t afford to ignore social media.  With patients and families on the social web, it provides a landscape for healthcare professionals to improve customer service and reach younger consumers.  Twitter is a great social media service for healthcare professionals to utilize, reaching an audience of business leaders, patients, colleagues and clients.

If you’re new to Twitter, it’s hard to know what tactics to implement.  And even harder to know what effective tactics to implement.

Here’s a list of 5 Twitter Tips for Healthcare Professionals to ensure you’re utilizing the service to its full potential:

Innovative hospitals are using rich media and social media channels to increase awareness amongst the media and patients. Here’s a video from Ragan TV that features Jill Fazakerly, marketing director for Methodist University Hospital of Memphis, talking about how a brain surgery webcast resulted in a New York Times article, new patients, speaking engagements and increased their sphere of influence:

If your hospital has developed innovative social media marketing methods or strategies, please share your stories with us. We’d love to write about you. Email us at: buy drugs tips at healthcareos dot com

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, Viagra 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.

Despite uncertainties regarding regulations on social media usage by pharma, many of the big players are still getting into the game.

A recent Pharma Marketing Blog post online drugs without prescription shares some interesting details on Pfizer’s entrance into social media via Facebook. But according to the post, that entrance wasn’t quite graceful:

When I became a Pfizer FB Pfan, Pfizer’s Wall contained a bunch of short “medicine Safety” videos in which patients talked about their medical conditions and medications. I don’t think any mentioned specific products by name.

When it comes to hospitals engaging with patients and their families on the social web, too many are concerned with justifying the efforts. But a recent blog post from Ragan Communications suggests that’s the wrong strategy completely:

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 buy prescription drugs without prescription engage.

Want to keep track of the conversation around the FDA special hearings on internet and social media?

This #FDASM aggregator site from Ignite Health should do the trick.

The site was created to capture conversations and resources related to the Nov. 12-13 FDA public hearing on how FDA-regulated product manufacturers use the Internet and social media.

A mobile version of the site is also available.

Check out some of the most recent tweets on the site:

• From @rohal: Dermatologists, Med Oncologists are the Top Phys Spec Groups Communicating with Patients Online http://bit.ly/bHvqoL #hcsmeu #pharma #hcsm

By now, the challenges faced by health care and pharmaceutical organizations when it comes to government regulations on social media are well know.

But a recent blog buy drugs online target=”_blank”>post from SmartBlog on Social Media’s Merritt Colaizzi suggests there may be some hope on the horizon. Despite the added layer of complexity resulting from government regulation, several standout health care and pharmaceutical companies are helping to get the social media ball rolling, including:

• ZocDoc puts patients in touch with physicians, allowing them to book appointments online, as well as provide ratings.

Find more videos like this on The Healthcare Marketing Community and Blog

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 buy prescription drugs online care marketers. With the rise of social media, health care marketers must be focused on facilitating conversations and sharing information.

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: