Healthcare Social Media Happenings

Seems like each day I’m getting more and more involved in healthcare social media. Although, as I was preparing for the social media panel at the Digital Health Conference in New York City (Final day to register for the event is Friday.) I realized that I no longer think about social media. It’s just an integral part of what I do and how I interact with the people around me. It’s a really satisfying feeling to think about social media now just being a natural part of my life and my work.

Digital Health Conference in New York City
For those of you who can’t attend the conference in New York, you can still follow along through social media at #dhc12 and during our social media session we’ll likely use #dhc12sm. For those who say they’re not on Twitter, you don’t have to be to follow the Twitter stream. Just click the links and enjoy the tweets. I did this for Health 2.0 since I couldn’t make it to San Francisco and a number of people in the #health2con twitter stream commented on how following a conference on Twitter was better than being there in person. I’d say it’s almost better, not quite better.

New York City Tweetup for Digital Health Conference
There’s still real value in face to face, but Twitter and other social media can enable the face to face as well. In fact, if you’re in or around NYC, we’re doing a Tweetup on Monday, Oct 15th from 5-7 PM at The Half King. You can see all the details and RSVP for the event here. 16 people already on the list, and certainly many more will show that learn about it at the conference or on Twitter. Everyone’s welcome to come.

Hosting #HITsm Chat
I also got an invite to host the #HITsm chat this week. What that means is that you’ll find me tweeting at Noon EST on Friday about 4 topics with some really smart people in healthcare IT. Many people like to participate using the #HITsm Tweetchat page (I usually use Hootsuite myself). I encourage readers to carve out some time on Friday morning and join in. Twitter chats are a beautiful mix of information, connection and collaboration.

As this week’s moderator, I was responsible for picking the 4 topics we discuss this week. I tried to pull the topics from a few of the major headlines and innovations I’d seen and written about recently. I expect these 4 topics are going to drive some really interesting discussion. Here they are for those who want to know what to expect from Friday’s chat:

1: A few in congress called for a halt on EHR incentives. Is this politics or something more? Are their observations founded?

For more information on the letter from the congressmen and some industry reaction, seeCongressmen Want Halt on Meaningful Use Payments.

2: Allscripts is the 2nd EHR vendor to discontinue their small practice EHR(MyWay), is this a trend and what’s the impact?

The news came out late last week that Allscripts had chosen to discontinue their popular MyWay EHR and try and transition those users to the Allscripts Professional EHR.  This is the second time an EHR vendor has sunset their small practice EHR in favor of their “enterprise” EHR.  GE Centricity Advance was the first example of a small practice EHR being sunset.

3: Is the hospital bed the ultimate medical device monitor?  What other med device monitors do you see on the horizon?

In this interview, Casey Pittock of BAM Labs makes a compelling case for the possibilities of what can be done with new smart bed technology.  The hospital bed is a unique opportunity for device monitoring.  What challenges does it have and what other device monitors have a lot of potential for healthcare?

4: What do you think of the remotoscope which allows you to diagnose ear infections at home using your iPhone?

Georgia Tech and Emory university created a clip-on attachment and app for the iPhone which turns it into an otoscope.  It is still going through clinical trials, but has the potential to avoid office visits for ear infections.  The remotoscope software includes the option to send the picture captured to your doctor for review.

I hope to see many of you on the #HITsm Twitter chat and in person in New York City!

About the author

John Lynn

John Lynn is the Founder of HealthcareScene.com, a network of leading Healthcare IT resources. The flagship blog, Healthcare IT Today, contains over 13,000 articles with over half of the articles written by John. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 20 million times.

John manages Healthcare IT Central, the leading career Health IT job board. He also organizes the first of its kind conference and community focused on healthcare marketing, Healthcare and IT Marketing Conference, and a healthcare IT conference, EXPO.health, focused on practical healthcare IT innovation. John is an advisor to multiple healthcare IT companies. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can be found on Twitter: @techguy.

   

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