The Rise Of Patient Health Communities On Twitter

Web 2.0 and health 2.0 are converging to become one of the most powerful shifts in health and human behavior in the last generation.  At its heart is the fact that patients are people, and that people are social.  They want to know their healthcare professional, and want to both seek the opinions of others and share their own opinions.  In this context patients are rightfully taking ownership of their healthcare decisions via actively seeking information and options on the web. 

If you doubt the power of social media to influence health communities then this visualisation may just very well change your mind and cause you to say we need to be more proactive in 2013. It certainly was what inspired me to champion the participatory medicine movement here in Australia and next year we will host the first Blogging Conference known as Healthivate specifically for these growing online communities and bloggers. There are a limited number of industry tickets available if you would like to network with these powerful groups. (Conference Hashtag is #hivate)

But for now let's discuss how health conversations are occurring on Twitter. For over 2 years, Symplur has collected health conversations on Twitter. From a humble start, their infrastructure has grown and matured to scale with the tremendous growth of healthcare social media. They are now approaching 150 million health tweets in our database which they analyze and categorize by thousands of variables. And similarly with other repositories of big data, their greatest challenge is to figure out how to present insights from such a vast dataset in a meaningful way. The answer is often found in visualizations.

What you see in the video below is a 22-month timeline of about 2,000 different health communities and topics each visualized as a bubble. In total, about 100 million healthcare tweets are represented in this visual. The green dots symbolize patient-centric topics, while pink encompasses more professional/provider topics. Larger bubbles signify larger volume of conversations within that community. The data is visualized dynamically over the this 22-month time period starting September 2010.

Blogger Opinions And The Sponsored Post

It's been quite a weekend. Healthivate seemed to go off well and the speakers were awesome! We laughed together, we cried together, we learnt together, we nanna napped together. It was full on.

So yesterday I felt totally brain dead as you can imagine and just wanted to chill. However given that I was still playing host to US #1 Mum Blogger Jessica Gottlieb before she departed for a little rest and recreation in Byron Bay I took some time to show her a little of Sydney.

As we strolled around to the Opera House forecourt, doing the usual touristy stuff we chatted about sponsored posts. And here's the insight:

In Australia, we have a tendency for brands to want to pre-approve the sponsored post. Agencies act as  a go between blogger and brand negotiating what must be said and not.

And here's the difference, Jessica says brands do ask her if they can pre-approve the sponsored post. Usually they never do. Quite rightly she said they're interested in the links - that's what I always check. The rest should always be my opinion, my voice.

How true. The power of the bloggers authentic voice.

A Social Media Cheat Sheet for Facebook 2013

I'm often asked how do I build engagement on Facebook. There is no one size fits all answer to this question but the following cheat sheet  from the folks at Linchpin SEO gives some handy tips to building compelling content and how to work with your community to build engagement. What has worked for you? Love to hear your tips?

Trend Watch 2013 - Will Doctors "Prescribe” HealthCare Websites For Certain Patients

1.2 trillion online searches, 146 languages. What did the world search for in 2012 and what were the top health issues? It seems Cancer, Diabetes and Depression were the top 3 most searched health issues on Google (US) in it's year review of 2012.Trending top 3 health issues were: Hemorrhoid. Gastroesophageal reflux disease and Sexually Transmitted Disease. You can view the full list released by Google below in this blog post.

These trends also indicate the growing significance of the movement known as Participatory Medicine. One of the leaders of the movement here in Australia is HealthShare, an expert Q & A health site and Australia's fastest growing interactive network. Check it out if you haven't already.

Similarly, blogs are popping up, building whole communities relating to health issues and diseases. 

Therefore playing it forward in 2013, likely to flourish in 2013 are the following: 

Peer-to-peer  
On blogs like Diabetes Mine, people can ask questions and get answers from others living with exactly those conditions. (One post about a new drug now has 2,000 comments.) “About 1 in 5 Internet users have gone online to find others who have similar health concerns,” says Susannah Fox from Pew Research.

Mobile, slowly 
Of course it’s growing, but when it comes to health, perhaps slower than the hype. “In 2012, 85% of U.S. adults owned a cell phone, but only 31% used it to search for health info online.” Mobile apps for exercise and dieting are popular, but we’re not yet using our phones as a primary source of health info–or to get text health alerts. By contrast, while the same percentage of Americans have access to the Internet, 84% have used it to search health information.

Participatory medicine
Once, perhaps, your doctor was the main source of health info. Now many people go online before they see their docs. Some physicians welcome that, a movement call Participatory Medicine. Some even “prescribe” websites for certain patients.

“The mindset is changing,” says Daniel Sands, MD, MPH, assistant clinical professor at Harvard Medical School and co-founder of the Society for Participatory Medicine. “Doctors may direct patients to health care websites, rather than just prescribing drugs.” At the same time, doctors who subscribe to participatory medicine–they can actually get a seal from the website–welcome patients who learn about health online.

“We should ask every single patient, ‘Do you go online? What sites do you find useful?,” says Dr. Sands. “We need to let them know that they can share information with us. It’s a very important part of our relationship with our patients.” Over the next few years, more and more patients will be able to view their health records online, download and transmit it to someone else, and communicate with their doctors, he says. “The era of medicine as a spectator sport – ‘I’m sick, doctor, fix me’ – is over. The new model is participatory medicine.”

Here again are the 2012 Google Zeitgeist lists. 

United States Trending Health Issues 2012
1. Hemorrhoid
2. Gastroesophageal reflux disease
3. Sexually Transmitted Disease
4. Diaper Rash
5. Diarrhea
6. Urinary tract infection
7. Miscarriage
8. Heartburn
9. Celiac disease
10. PTSD

United States Most-Searched Health Issues 2012
1. Cancer
2. Diabetes
3. Depression
4. Acne
5. Herpes
6. Back pain
7. Burns
8. Breast cancer
9. Autism
10. Diarrhea

United States Most-Searched Symptoms 2012
1. Pregnancy symptoms
2. Diabetes symptoms
3. Flu symptoms
4. UTI symptoms
5. Mono symptoms
6. Strep Throat symptoms
7. HIV symptoms
8. Lupus symptoms
9. Heart Attack symptoms
10. Lyme Disease symptoms

Let the 2013 searching begin!

Footnote: E-Patient Dave widely known as one of the greatest patient advocates for Participatory Medicine with the catch cry - 'Let Patients Help' will be visiting Australian in late June 2012 for a series of public speaker engagements. Anyone interested in Dave addressing your organisation should contact me directly to determine if your activity can be accommodated into his tour schedule. There is an applicable fee for all speaking engagements.

Bloggers might be interested also in the upcoming blogger conference - Healthivate that aims to share personal health stories, educate and explore the growing Participatory Medicine Movement. Tickets to attend available at http://www.healthivate.com