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Healthcare Digital Futurist Fard Johnmar

Have you ever wanted to be a time traveler? That’s how I felt during my conversation with Fard Johnmar, healthcare digital futurist and co-author of “ePatient 2015 – 15 Surprising Trends Changing Health Care.”  Instead of looking back, Fard is looking ahead and using his unique perspective to vision how digital and social media can and is impacting healthcare. His book, co-written by Rohit Bhargava, was released in December 2013 and he has already seen some of his “predictions” come to pass sooner that he had imagined.

epatient_2015During the course of our conversation we covered a lot of ground. Here are the time stamps to help you find some of the high points (or just listen to the whole episode)!

  • Digital Health Futurist at 2:38
  • “Augmented Nutrition” at 9:20
  • Data collection & analysis at 9:50
  • “Multicultural Misalignment” at 14:10
  • Digital Peer to peer healthcare at 18:34
  • Stupid Cancer & Instapeer.org at 22:41
  • “Care Hacking” at 26:40
  • “Accelerated Trial Sourcing” at 29:00

Visit our resources page for more valuable (and free!) resources on social media and digital health

Digital Health Illustrated launch at

Susannah Fox (formerly) of PEW Internet Research at 4:34 & 19:00

Matthew Zachary of StupidCancer.org at 22:41

Google Glass at 8:05

Apple HealthKit at 8:10

ePatient 2015 – Surprising Trends Changing Health Care (Affiliate link) at 8:39

Fard Johnmar LinkedIn

Social Media Tip from Ashleigh Verdier, Digital/Social Media Strategist and Content Marketing Specialist at ABB, North America. Here a a few of Ashleigh’s recommended link shorterners: Goo.gl, Ow.ly & Bit.ly

Social Media’s Potential for Suicide Prevention

Doc ForemanThe future is now. Sophisticated technology has made things possible that mental health is not ready to tackle. And maybe, in the case of suicide, that’s a good thing.

It is already possible, “today” to monitor social media for messages from people sharing their suicidal thoughts and feelings; to geo-locate those individuals, and then to send rescue to their door, within only minutes of their first suicidal message. IT professionals know this. It’s the mental health community that is just figuring this out. IT professionals are already developing this technology. When they “throw the switch” and begin to use it, mental health needs to be ready to respond effectively.

This is an interesting development for several reasons. First, most mental health professionals avoid even passing familiarity with the use of social media, let alone understanding the culture and nuances of interacting on various mainstream platforms, such as Twitter or Tumblr. Many in my field aren’t familiar with research that suggests that suicidal people may be more honest about their risk on social media (some research suggests people report a suicide at higher rates on social media than in real life).

Right now there is a “street nurse” in Toronto that finds people on Twitter who are suicidal and gets them local resources in real time (@RealTimeCrsisis). But for many in the mental health industry, the thought of doing this is anxiety provoking, and overwhelming. It is our community’s anxiety that is getting in the way of making a meaningful contribution at the intersection of mental health and social media.

Second, the IT industry has no “IRB” or mental health review process, and it’s not going to. People who can develop a code or technology will do it, whether they have thought through the mental health implications of it or not. It is up to the mental health community to become familiar with social media and IT and to initiate relationships with the IT community. This is the only way that we can increase the chance of technology and social media being used thoughtfully and effectively in mental health-related matters.

Can you imagine an IT developer “throwing the switch” on a program that quickly identifies and geolocates suicidal people via social media posts, only to find people in need of help with no idea how to go about helping them? While our mental health community is still debating the utility and security of encrypted email with patients (we’ve had that capability for years, patients want it, and yet few mental health providers use it), IT develops are rapidly expanding the capabilities and possibilities for communication with people who are suicidal. It is past time for our mental health community to begin to engage with IT and social media developers in meaningful ways about public health and safety.

Finally, this is interesting because IT and social media developers now have the tools to initiate social science experiments on a scale that was unimaginable only a few years ago, and they are already doing it. Facebook developers have demonstrated the ability to manipulate your mood. They performed an experiment on over 700,000 users with a speed and scale that is unimaginable to most social science and mental health researchers today.

Quite honestly, our mental health community isn’t sure how to react to this. Should we be impressed? Nervous? Indignant that we weren’t consulted and our safety review methods not used? Ashamed we didn’t anticipate this and prepare? Intrigued at what might be possible, and how to use that for the greatest good?

In the end, I think the only useful reaction is to replace fear with curiosity. Anxiety and avoidance is no substitute for thoughtful caution and curiosity. If our mental health community stands by our tradition of advocacy and compassion, then we have a duty to acknowledge and embrace the possibilities of social media for preventing suicide and improving mental health. Because if we don’t do it, then someone else who doesn’t understand mental health will.

When it comes to suicide prevention and mental health, technology is moving too fast for our field to wait until we are comfortable enough with social media to innovate. Instead, we must innovate until we are comfortable.

CrowdFunding Cancer Research – Marty Smith

Martin Smith

Martin (Marty) Smith
Tech Cures Cancer

Martin (Marty) Smith is a serial entrepreneur and founder of an exciting initiative: Tech Cures Cancer Fund at the University of North Carolina Lineberger Cancer Center. He is also the founder of CureCancerStarter.org, one of the first crowdfunding websites for cancer research, working with five leading cancer research centers. He is also the founder and CEO of Curagami.com, a company whose marketing tools help SMBs curate and gamify content marketing to create profitable and sustainable online community. Oh, and he is also battling cancer.

Marty talks to Get Social Health about the radical change in his life when he heard the words cancer and his name in the same sentence. Realizing that he didn’t have the support group he needed to undergo an intensive cancer treatment he turned to the thing he knew best, the internet, and made his health journey public via social media. Rather than accept his situation as out of his control Marty made it his mission to raise funds for cancer research. The first challenge he undertook was a bicycle trip across the US that raised awareness of cancer known as “Martin’s Ride to Cure Cancer.” As he has battled his chronic case of Lymphocytic Leukemia he continued to challenge himself as a fundraiser and internet visionary by creating not one but two crowd funding foundations to support cancer research.

Listen to Marty’s story and tell me you are not amazed at his dedication, tenacity and resiliency.

Visit our resources page for more valuable (and free!) resources on social media and digital health

Curagami website
Twitter @Curagami 
UNC LinebergerTech Cures Cancer donation option (look at the bottom of the list).
Lineberger Cancer Center: Dr. van Deventer’s profile
Martin (Marty) Smith on Twitter:  @scenttrail

Teen Cancer e-Patient Clarissa Schilstra

Cancer Survivor & Founder of teen-cancer.com

Cancer Survivor & Founder of teen-cancer.com

It was a great pleasure speaking with Clarissa Schlistra, a two-time Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia survivor, college student, e-Patient and founder of teen-cancer.com. When I see the term “two-time…” I want to fill in the blanks with “…Heavyweight Champion of the World!” In Clarissa’s case, it’s an apt moniker because she has not only fought and won a tough battle with cancer, it has made her stronger and dedicated to helping other kids and youth in the same fight. As you will hear in our discussion, there is a unique challenge for teens undergoing treatment for a health issue. They are too old for toys or clowns but facing the challenges of growing up in a situation where there are very few other teens to interact with in person.

Clarissa found a resource while she was ill in Care Pages, a free website that enables patients and their families to connect online to give updates, send and receive messages. She was able to find other patients her age who shared valuable tips on dealing with her situation.

Visit our resources page for more valuable (and free!) resources on social media and digital health

Our Social Media Tip comes from Allison Carter, a freelance writer and content strategist at AllisonBCarter.com. Alison recommends “Engage, Social Media is about creating community.”

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Casey Korinchock – Patient Engagement

Get Social Health takes a look at patient engagement platforms during an interview with Casey Korinchock. Casey is the Marketing Manager for Axial Exchange, a software solutions company that creates engagement platforms for hospitals. She first started working with hospitals in a private-equity backed startup in New York helping health systems improve their health care services in the home started working with Axial Exchange about a year ago.

During the course of our interview we discussed a new survey,  “100 Best Hospitals for Patient Engagement” recently released that was a partnership between Becker Hospital Review and Axial that rated hospitals on their patient engagement. Unlike previous surveys, this report was based on four metrics: Hospital Re-admissions, Patient Satisfaction, Patient Education and Self-Care tools and Social Media Engagement.

Visit our resources page for more valuable (and free!) resources on social media and digital health:

About Axial: Axial Exchange helps patients help themselves. They are a software solutions company that creates engagement platforms for hospitals and are focused on creating a connection between them and a patient for the 99% of the time they are away from the health system. Axial Exchange offers a patient-facing mobile application, a provider-facing population dashboard along with consulting services. They believe a patient that is more engaged in their health is more loyal, has higher HCAHPS and is proven to have lower readmission rates. Axial has 12 health system clients representing more than 50 individual hospitals and out-patient facilities.

Social Media Tip from Amy Avery, Free-lance Healthcare Writer and owner of Amy Writes: “Have an schedule for content.”

Doc Foreman: Suicide Education and Twitter

Get Social Health talks to Dr. April C. Foreman (or @DocForeman to her healthcare social media crew). She is a Licensed Psychologist serving Veterans in Louisiana as a Suicide Prevention Coordinator for the Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System. Prior to that she worked as the only Licensed Psychologist providing care in the four of the sickest and poorest counties of rural Kansas. Dr. Foreman received her Ph.D. from Texas Tech University in 2005.

social media for healthcareDocForeman’s mission in life is to relieve pain, one person, one problem, one minute at a time if she has to. She is known for her practical experience using innovations in emerging technology to solve problems for patients with severe emotional pain.

Our conversation, while about a very serious subject was not without humor, an essential element in dealing with people with suicidal thoughts. ”

You can find DocForeman on Facebook (April Foreman), and on Twitter, where she moderates a weekly Twitter Chat on Suicide Prevention and Social Media (#SPSM). SPSM chat is a project designed to build and spread expertise in the intersection of social media and suicide prevention. A weekly guest expert or targeted discussion topic is featured each week, and targeted at a diverse and multidisciplinary group of stake holders in this field. Each week’s chat is curated, creating a centralized and searchable body of expertise and thought leadership. You can find it here.

Visit our resources page for more valuable (and free!) resources on social media and digital health:

Social Media Tip:

From Dana Harris with REX/UNC Healthcare: “Talk to people” -engage on a personal level.