By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA

Can health care providers afford to ignore social media?

Social Media Networking isn’t going to go away…

…and trying to ignore won’t work…

Social media is a powerful and phenomenal platform to disseminate valuable and trusted health information.  Are you engaged in social media networking or are you ignoring it?

Social media allows health care silos the opportunity to engage with each other.  Health care conversations between the silos begin to emerge, and relationships develop.  But, is that enough?

Are relationships a big enough reason to engage in social media?

It should be, however not everyone in health care is convinced.

There are health care organizations that still do not have a presence on social networking sites, there are some doctors, nurses and other health care professionals who continue to question the value of social media networking and there are health care companies that continue to remain in their own silo without engaging in social media.

At the very least, health care professionals and companies should be listening to the conversations that are happening in real-time.

Health care organizations and professionals can benefit by looking outside their silo and find out how others are successfully engaging in social media.

Social media is about connection, communication, collaboration and community.  By engaging in social media, you can create, foster and strengthen relationships, and that simply cannot be ignored.

There are excellent resources to help you begin incorporating social media into your practice, or organization.  Health care professionals who would like to expand their voice beyond their everyday work; can engage in social networks which gives them a platform to build “their brand.”  They can help raise awareness of health issues, talk about innovations in medicine, provide support and listen to the conversations by patients and consumers.

Social Media Today and HealthWorks Collective

Find out more, come and join Social Media Today and HealthWorks Collective for an invaluable Webinar, “Can Health Care Providers Afford to Ignore Social Media?”

Let’s separate fact from fiction, learn why social media is important in today’s health care arena, find out how to use social media networking to your advantage, why listening is so important.  Find out how to cultivate relationships, learn why relationships and social media cannot be ignored and why social media is invaluable to your organization and practice.

This exclusive Webinar takes place on January 31, 2012 at 2:30 p.m. EST and 11:30 a.m. PST.   I’m delighted to be moderating this distinguished panel of guests.

Social Media Panel Participants Include:

• John Glaser, CEO Health Services, Siemens Health Care
• Edward Marx, CIO, Texas Health Resources
• Ed Bennett,
• Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA, Healthin30.com | The Huffington Post

About the Webinar

Marking an upheaval in the way customers interact with companies, the growth of social media is every bit as important for healthcare providers as for professionals in other industries. When employed well, social media can be a valuable tool to help you improve patient communications, increase quality of care and reduce costs.

Join HealthWorks Collective for this live Webinar to learn how providers can use social media to connect with patients and the community, while helping patients gather information about diseases, treatment, and innovations in medicine, and find support from other patients. Find out how innovative caregivers are using social tools to monitor and track patient progress, alert family members in case of emergency, and network with other caregivers for idea and information exchange. In healthcare as elsewhere, the true value of social media is to foster, preserve and strengthen relationships.  Discuss how patient-driven online communities are changing how patients learn about disease, conditions, and treatments.

Webinar participants will learn from our distinguished panel about:

• The growing importance of social media and how digital channels can help improve patient engagement and compliance.
• The best practices for overcoming the hurdles of building a patient social network from scratch.
• The difference social media can make to the ways you and your hospital interact with patients and online healthcare shoppers.

Webinar

Register Here Today.  We hope you can join us and you will have the opportunity to send your questions in during the live Webinar event.

Here is a “List of 20 Excellent Social Media Networking Resources” to help you begin to engage and develop relationships.  Join the Webinar for more information and to engage with the panel members.

About the Panel:

John Glaser, Ph.D., CEO Health Services, Siemens Healthcare

John Glaser, Ph.D. currently serves as chief executive officer (CEO) of the Health Services Business Unit of Siemens Healthcare, where he is responsible for heading Siemens’ global healthcare IT business, including product development, strategy, portfolio management, financial performance, and overall customer satisfaction. In this capacity, he leads over 4,500 employees, multiple health information system brands, a robust Global Services arm, and Siemens’ world-renowned Information Systems Center. Prior to joining Siemens, Dr. Glaser was Vice-President and Chief Information Officer, Partners HealthCare, Inc.

Edward W. Marx, Senior VP and CIO, Texas Health Resources

Edward W. Marx is senior vice president and chief information officer for Texas Health Resources. Marx’s primary responsibilities include assessing current and future technology needs in support of developing and implementing a strategy and roadmap for a rational approach to information technology that aligns Texas Health systems, projects and technology support with clinical and business needs. ComputerWorld magazine named Marx to its list of Premier 100 IT Leaders for 2010.

Ed Bennett

Ed Bennett has over fifteen years experience working on the Internet, and has worn many hats – programmer, designer, consultant, information architect, start-up participant, etc. His current focus is the growing use of Social Media and its impact on health care. Ed maintains the Hospital Social Network List, which tracks the social media activities of over 1,100 U.S. Hospitals.

Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA, Moderator

Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA is an award-winning journalist, medical blogger, freelance writer, media broadcaster, speaker, consultant, health educator and registered nurse. She is founder and Editor-in-Chief of Healthin30.com.  Barbara is a featured writer at The Huffington Post and she is on the Editorial Advisory Board and consumer health educator for ShareCare.com. She is an Administrative Head Nurse (Administrative Supervisor) at a large university medical center and covers multiple medical and surgical units, critical care and women’s and children’s services.

We hope you can join us.  Register here today.

Connect with me | Stay in touch

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As always, thank you for your valuable time.

Image: photostock / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA

An epic win

Parts 1 through 4 of the series “How is Gaming Changing the Landscape in Health Care,” clearly defined the importance of gaming in the health care arena.

Games for Health

Gaming utilizing smartphones and social networking are helping to transform health care.

Jane McGonigal, Game Designer in her TED Talk from February 2010 said, “Right now we spend 3 billion hours a week playing online games.” She feels everyone needs to spend more time playing bigger and better games.

3 billion hours a week isn’t nearly enough time to solve the world’s problems.  “If we want to solve problems like hunger, poverty, climate change, global conflict, obesity, I believe that we need to aspire to play games online for at least 21 billion hours a week by the end of the next decade.”

Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world

Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world

Games for Health to Engage Consumers

Here are only a few games to help you engage in your health.  (Information is obtained from the websites, unless otherwise noted.)  In the comment section below, it would be great if you could add to this list so we can establish a solid list of games for health.

• S2h.com - motivates and rewards people for physical activity; while enabling businesses to acquire customers for the rewards redeemed. By integrating products based on patent pending S2H technology and other activity-based tracking tools, S2H.COM allows users to earn rewards for their physical activity and share their progress with the online community.
• SuperBetter - is an online game designed to help you achieve your health and wellness goals. It’s a social game — so you’ll want to play it with your closest friends and family.  SuperBetter was invented by a game designer, and created with guidance from doctors, psychologists, scientists and medical researchers. Every aspect of the game is designed to harness the power of positive emotions and social connection for better health.  SuperBetter is a game that helps you recover from any illness or injury — or achieve any health goal — by increasing your personal resilience. Resilience means staying curious, optimistic and motivated even in the face of the toughest challenges.  SuperBetter creates a private, online space where your closest friends and family become allies in your adventure toward health and wellness. The game is played in two parts: First, a set of 7 guided missions that create the foundation for your journey. Then, an open-ended, self-guided adventure that you play with your family and friends in the real world-not a virtual environment-in an effort to achieve your health goals.
• Mindbloom – a Seattle-based interactive media company that’s out to make life improvement accessible to everyone. By harnessing next-generation engagement techniques and focusing them on personal development, Mindbloom has created a new, powerful way for people to improve the quality of their lives. Utilizing behavioral science, personalized rich media, and fun social gaming techniques in their offerings Mindbloom makes the process of personal growth fun, simple and effective.
• Healthrageous – Combining information about you and your body with proven expertise, Healthrageous supports your efforts to shed unhealthy habits, embrace healthy lifestyles, and achieve your health and wellness goals. This is done by providing you with personalized guidance, expert coaching, and inspirational support – delivered when and where you want it.
• ShapeUp – “ShapeUp takes a social approach to healthy living, inviting employees to form teams with their colleagues and challenging those teams to achieve wellness goals like increasing their exercise, improving their diet, and losing weight. By turning healthy living into a fun and friendly competition, we introduce game mechanics like points, levels, team standings, and prizes that drive engagement, behavior change, and sustained health outcomes. The average employee who participates in our program reduces his or her Body Mass Index by 1.2 points over the course of sixteen weeks, an average of 7 pounds of weight loss,” wrote Dr. Rajiv Kumar in an email.
• Numera Social – Leveraging the power of social influence and the science of behavior change, Numera|Social is a new breed of health and wellness company seeking to engage individuals when and where they spend their time.  Delivered as a suite of white-labeled Facebook and Mobile platform solutions, healthcare providers, insurers, employers and wellness organizations can quickly establish their own highly interactive experience.  Numera Social’s integrated Facebook and iOS apps provides you with a platform to help individuals focus on goals using tools to help establish achievable objectives. With expert plans and challenges that fuel individual and peer-supported progress and success, users take action.  Through sustained engagement, compliance and outcomes results are measured using objective data.
• Humana -Within Humana’s Innovation Center, they are busy exploring emerging technology, researching human insights and immersing ourselves in popular pastimes, to understand ways to create what we like to call “Health Entertainment.” The primary focus of this approach is to use video games and video game technology to craft these experiences.  They are also exploring how they  can expand beyond gameplay and create fun, and healthy, entertainment that both captivates audiences and generates health outcomes that result in a healthier world.
• Endogoddess App – A Motivational App for People with Diabetes – Jennifer Shine Dyer, MD, MPH, is a pediatric endocrinologist, social media enthusiast (@EndoGoddess), app developer, and mobile health entrepreneur in Ohio with a patient-centered focus looking to make health outcomes better for people living with diabetes or other chronic diseases. In partnership with Ohio mobile software startup Duet Health Eproximiti, she developed the EndoGoddess App available for download since September 2011 for patients with diabetes who require insulin therapy based on BJ Fogg’s health behavior model with the following features: iTunes reward motivation, a unique social business plan, daily inspiring quotes submitted from the diabetes online community, multi-media informative diabetes content, social media links. Focus group studies on the user experience are ongoing and a randomized controlled trial is planned to test the app’s effects on diabetes health outcomes within an endocrinology private practice here in Columbus.

Truly an Epic Win

For gaming to truly be an epic win, gaming needs to “captivate the attention of all the health care silos.”

Your Turn

We would love to hear from you.  What “Games for Health” would you like to include on the list?  What Health Apps?  Do you engage in any of these health games mentioned in this post?  What makes a good health game?  Please share your insightful thoughts below.

As always, thank you for your valuable time.

Connect with me | Stay in touch

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Image: twobee / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA

Join me @BarbaraFicarra and @SharecareNow sleep experts for a spirited conversation about sleep problems and solutions on 1/24/12 from 12 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. EST for a twitter chat.  Twitter handle is #geturzzzs.

Sleep is an essential part of our health and well-being.  Sleep isn’t a luxury but crucial for good health.  Research shows that insufficient sleep has been linked to chronic diseases and conditions such as Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity and depression.

How many hours of sleep do you get?  Do you have trouble falling asleep?  Do you feel sleepy during the day?  Do you suffer from Shift Work Sleep Disorder (SWSD)?

Join the twitter chat and learn how to improve your sleep, find out how much sleep is enough, learn about shift work sleep disorder (SWSD), find out the symptoms, and discover ways to deal with it, plus lots more.

If you would like to tweet about it.  Here you go…

Eat-n-Tweet:Get Your Zzz’s Ask @Sharecarenow experts your sleep questions 1/24/|12-2 pm EST #geturzzzs @BarbaraFicarra http://goo.gl/pL9Za

Experts in Sharecare’s Twitter Chat – (Sharecare)

Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA – Health Educator

Dr. Scott Leibowitz – Co-Medical Director, The Piedmont Sleep Disorders Center

Dr. Steven Feinsilver – Sleep Medicine, The Mount Sinai Medical Center

Dr. Rachel Salas – Assistant Professor of Neurology and Medicine, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Dr. Michael Breus – Sleep Expert and Clinical Psychologist

About Sharecare

Sharecare created by Jeff Arnold, founder WebMD and Dr. Mehmet Oz, a leading cardiac surgeon, health expert and Emmy-award winning host of “The Dr. Oz show” is an interactive, social Q&A platform designed to greatly simplify the search for quality healthcare information and help consumers live their healthiest life.

Sharecare collectively brings together top leaders in the health care industry to provide consumers with multiple perspectives within a single website dedicated to improve health and wellness for healthier lives.  Sharecare is in partnership with Harpo Studios, Sony Pictures Television and Discovery Communications.

Your turn

We hope you will be able to join us for Sharecare’s Twitter chat on Tuesday, January 24th from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. EST. Ask us your questions about sleep and we will answer them.  As always, thank you for your valuable time.

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By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA

Time to break the health care silos

In Part 1, Fabio Gratton, Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer at Ignite Health, answered the question, “How is Gaming Changing the Landscape in Health Care?”

In Part 2, Joseph C. Kvedar, MD, Founder and Director Center for Connected Health answered the question: “How is Gaming Changing the Landscape in Health Care?”

In Part 3, Bill Crounse, MD, Senior Director, Worldwide Health Microsoft Corporation answered the question:  “How is Gaming Changing the Landscape in Health Care?”

Part 4, I offer my thoughts here on how gaming is changing the landscape in health care.

Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA

Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA

Q:  How is gaming helping to change the landscape in health care?

A: Gaming is helping to change the landscape in health care because gaming allows individuals to become active and engaged in their health, however gaming needs to captivate the attention of all the health care silos in order to be a true game-changer in health care.

Gaming is popular

There is no doubt gaming is popular, and according to The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) consumers spent $25.1 billion on video games, hardware and accessories in 2010.

A few facts about gaming:

• 72% of American households play computer or video games.
• 82% of gamers are 18 years of age or older.
• The average age of a game player is 37 years old.
• 29% of Americans over the age of 50 play video games.
• 42% of all game players are women.
• 55% of gamers play games on their phones or handheld device.

Social Health

A distinctive layer of gaming is social health which promotes patient and consumer engagement.  Social health is an important area for all health care silos to understand and embrace.

Social networking goes beyond blogs.  Social networking is a platform to communicate, collaborate and connect with consumers, and digital play can help foster behavior change and sustain a healthier lifestyle.

“Digital games, including virtual realities, computer simulations and online play, are valuable tools for fostering patient participation in health-related activities. This is why gaming is the latest tool in the arsenal to improve health outcomes: gaming makes health care fun.”  [Source:  Robert Wood Johnson Foundation]

Whether you engage online, with the Wii, Kinect or with the click of an app, gaming technology is transforming health care.

Mobile health continues to soar

According to the research firm Frost & Sullivan, Fiercemobile Health Care reports, “The mobile health app market will grow to $392 million over the next five years, a 70 percent increase.”  Additionally, it’s also reported that “Mobile healthcare and medical apps are predicted to reach 142 million downloads by 2016.”

What’s in it for you?

If you become engaged, proactive and empowered in your health care, you are more likely to adhere to action plans and sustain healthy behaviors.

Sometimes it’s not easy going in it alone.  Having support from family and friends can help you be accountable for your outcomes.

Gaming can help you achieve your health goals in a fun and challenging fashion.  Gaming often includes challenges and rewards.

How do we motivate individuals?

We start by calling in the tribes; our family, our friends, our supporters, our motivators, our coaches, the navigators, and our peers to help us.

“Friends and family can provide social support and encouragement for healthy behavior. They can also gently remind the person when they get off track,” said Melanie Greenberg, PhD, a clinical and health psychologist with a private practice in Mill Valley, CA.

Family and friends can be a positive influence for us to achieve better health because they can be our role model.  “We learn by watching others.  The behavior of people around us also influences our own standards and definitions for healthy lifestyles,” said Greenberg.  “Research shows there are more obese people in the social networks of obese people and normal weight people have more normal weight friends and family.  “Therefore, by getting healthy, you naturally influence those around you to get healthy too. Your behavior change may make family and friends reevaluate their own lifestyles. If you can do it, they may feel more confident that they can do it too.”

Behaviors are contagious and can spread in social networks

“Science also supports the idea that healthy and unhealthy behaviors are contagious and spread through social networks,” said Greenberg.  There is a landmark 2007 study in the New England Journal of Medicine by Christakis and Fowler.

It’s good news that social networks can impact healthy behaviors which can result in positive outcomes, but that’s not enough.

Time to break the silos in health care

In order for gaming to spread in social networks, it’s time to break the silos in health care to allow innovation and action to emerge.

In a recent post published on Healthin30, Joseph Kvedar, MD,  Founder and Director of the Center for Connected Health notes that when it comes to gaming for health, there is a drift of two silos in health care; doctor-driven and consumer driven.

His point is well taken, but I believe there are other specific silos in health care that haven’t so much drifted apart, but haven’t fully met in the middle.  The separation of silos impedes collaboration.

Payers, providers, pharmaceutical companies, academic  health centers, research institutions, health IT,  doctors, nurses, pharmacists, dieticians, health and wellness retailers, employers, health and medical bloggers, entrepreneurs, policy–makers, patient bloggers, patients, caregivers, educators, consumers, government, manufacturers of medical device companies, social media experts, public relations and marketing firms, health information providers –  online, print, radio and television, are other silos in health care.

Need to adopt a collaborative culture

“No business, institution, or government agency is immune from silo syndrome in which barriers develop among the organization’s many parts. But adopting collaborative culture, processes, and tools can keep silo syndrome in check and create greater value.”  [Source:  Business Week]

In the hospital, quality patient care is delivered by an interdisciplinary team approach.

Outside the hospital, the same principles need to apply.

“Gamifying” health care is not a silver bullet. The act of improving healthcare can and should be approached from many different angles,” writes Fabio Gratton.  He further notes that “while direct to consumer health care advertising, mass media, and the Internet have dramatically increased the sheer volume of information and people’s access to it – these advances have done relatively little to actually create knowledge and transform behavior.”

By breaking the silos, engagement across the specialties will foster innovation and action.  Thought leaders and influencers from the various silos coming together to communicate, collaborate and connect in a transparent style, can help transform health care from stagnant to spectacular.

John Kotter, contributor at Forbes writes, that one way to eliminate the silos, is to create a “guiding coalition.”  The Digital Health Coalition is doing just that, perhaps this is a good place to start for collaboration and connection.

So while gaming is fun and cool as Bill Crounse, MD states, we need cooperation and connection from all the silos to help transform health care and create the landscape we want for a healthier life.

“An idea that might resonate inside of a silo might just wither away.” – Seth Godin

Your turn

We would love to hear from you.  Do you think gaming is changing the landscape in health care?  What are your thoughts on health care silos? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.

As always, thank you for your valuable time and for sharing your insights.

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Next up:  Games for Health

[Image: Image: pixtawan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net]

By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA

Bill Crounse, MD, Senior Director, Worldwide Health Microsoft Corporation answers the question, “How is Gaming Changing the Landscape in Health Care?”

In Part 1, Fabio Gratton, Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer at Ignite Health, answered the question, “How is Gaming Changing the Landscape in Health Care?”

In Part 2, Joseph C. Kvedar, Founder and Director Center for Connected Health answered the question: “How is gaming changing the landscape in health care?”

In Part 3, Bill Crounse, MD, Senior Director, Worldwide Health Microsoft Corporation answers the question and in Part 4, I will offer my input.

Bill Crounse, MD, Senior Director, Worldwide Health Microsoft Corporation

Q:  How is gaming helping to change the landscape in health care?

A: Savvy healthcare professionals increasingly speak of a more “patient or consumer-centric health system”.  Hospitals, clinics and health plans are taking a lesson from the popularity of social networking and making connections directly with consumers.  Health professionals, marketers, employers, pharmaceutical companies, health plans and others view gaming as yet another way to engage consumers in their own health.  And why not?

Gaming is social (or can be).  Gaming is cool.  Gaming is active (especially Xbox Kinect). Gaming is fun.  Gaming is high tech.  And gaming opens a door to entirely new ways to reach consumers and patients where they live; in their own homes.

As we move toward a health system more focused on prevention, more focused on personal responsibility as part of the equation, and payment systems more focused on outcomes than volume, one can see how gaming can play an important role in all of that.

Health Tech Today
Health Blog

About Bill Crounse, MD

Bill Crounse, MD, is Senior Director, Worldwide Health for the Microsoft Corporation. He is responsible for providing worldwide thought leadership, vision, and strategy for Microsoft technologies and solutions in the healthcare provider industry.  As a board certified family physician, he practiced medicine in the Seattle area for 20 years.

Dr. Crounse blogs at Health Blog and is the host and executive producer of Health Tech Today.

Follow Dr. Crounse on Twitter @MicrosoftMD

Your turn

We would love for you to share your insightful thoughts and comments.  “How is Gaming Changing the Landscape in Health Care?”

As always, thank you for your valuable time.

Connect with me | Stay in touch

Follow Barbara on Twitter
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Next up

Part 4, I answer the question “How is Gaming Changing the Landscape in Health Care?”