Janet Kennedy

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

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

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.

Pinterest Expert Alexandra Tursi

Social Media Strategist Fletcher Allen Health Care

Social Media Strategist
Fletcher Allen Health Care

The mission of Get Social Health is to bring you stories of social media practitioners actively working in social media for healthcare. In guest Alexandra Tursi we have a heavy hitter. Alexandra Tursi is a social media strategist at Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington, VT.  Alexandra directs the social media program for Vermont’s largest employer, including management of blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram. She’s responsible for strategy development, tactical expertise and execution, and measurement of social programs.  Her role includes directing social media education efforts internally, managing social media analytics and supporting the marketing and communications team via social media. Alexandra is also a member of the Mayo Clinic Social Media Network.

While Alex is a multi-talented marketer, it is her expertise in Pinterest that brought her to Get Social Health as a guest.

We had a great conversation so be sure to listen to the podcast. In preparation Alex also answered a few background questions, some of which we didn’t get around to covering in our discussion. Check out the blog post with her answers here.

Social Media Tip Guest: Our “tipster” this episode is Will Hardison of Fanbase. Thanks Will!

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

Social Sprout

WooBox

Social Media for Fletcher Allen Health Care

Alexandra Tursi Alexandra Tursi of Fletcher Allen Health Care was guest of Get Social Health podcast #005. It was a great conversation that ran so long we didn’t get to all the questions I wanted to ask. She was kind enough to put some time into answering them so I could share them with you.

Bonus questions!

Janet: Talk about working with the C-Suite on your digital and social media efforts – did you have to do some education about social or were they up to speed?

Alex: The C-Suite was open to social media originally. That said, we have done training and education and we also produce a quarterly report that shows ROI.

Janet: What do you see in healthcare social media among your peers – both in general and among other hospital systems?

Alex: I see incredible opportunity! I think Cleveland Clinic has a great strategy and they publish great content on a very frequent basis. We are definitely inspired by them. I think the great opportunity is in thought leadership and expertise. Health care consumers are desperate for information about medical topics. Our goal is to provide evidence-based expertise that people can use in their information-gathering and put into action. Yet, only 11% of healthcare professionals use social media for professional reasons. We need to increase the clinical voice in social media. That is our opportunity.

Janet: What would you say to other hospitals about the benefits of engaging in social media?

Alex: It’s where your healthcare consumers are – and where they will only continue to be in increasing numbers. Start now, build your foundation – it’s only going to get bigger. The benefits are incredible – we see our employees proud to share our social media content, we see patients sharing positive experiences. It is incredible for word-of-mouth.

Janet: What “words of wisdom” would you offer?

Alex: Start small, define your goals very specifically, make a plan for ongoing content creation, identify some preliminary metrics and a process for measuring them, identify and train your team.

Janet: The issues some hospitals deal with daily are ones that our society is still not comfortable talking about openly – suicide, STDs, mental health, chronic conditions and more. Do you think social media is opening a dialog about these issues?

Alex: Yes, as I mentioned it is critical to have an expert voice in these conversations. They are happening whether we participate or not.

Janet: How do you deal with such provocative issues in social media?

Alex: Carefully and strategically. It’s a team approach among our Marketing team and the involved Public Affairs and Clinical teams.

Janet: Have you ever had to deal with a privacy issue online? “TMI” or “Oversharing”?

Alex: No. But we have dealt with patients who have reported negative experiences.

Thanks to Alex for answering these additional questions. You can hear more about her work in podcast number 5.

YouTube Video Blog for Patient Education with Dr. Isaac Porter

PorterToday our Get Social Health expert is Ophthalmologist Dr Isaac Porter of Lowry Porter Ophthalmology about Video Blogging. Dr. Porter is a fellowship trained cornea and refractive surgeon. Dr. Porter received his undergraduate degree from Asbury University and his medical degree from the University of Kentucky. Dr. Porter completed his residency in Ophthalmology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and was selected to serve as Chief Resident.

Following residency, Dr. Porter completed sub-specialty training with a fellowship in Cornea, External Disease, and Refractive Surgery at the prestigious Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary in Chicago, Illinois.

Dr. Porter is active in social media including business profiles on Google Plus, Facebook, Google Local and YouTube. In fact, Dr. Porter is an active Video Blogger and posts a video blog or Vlog, at least once a week. During our conversation we discuss his video strategy, how he maximizes his SEO and the equipment he uses for his video blog.

He has authored book chapters on mapping the curvature of the cornea and correcting astigmatism using laser and has presented at several national meetings.

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

NPR story on Physician Review Sites

Vlog and Media Coverage:

Social Media Sites:

Products:

A note of clarification: During the interview you can hear a cat meow twice. I assumed it was Dr. Porter’s cat. As it turns out it was my cat sitting outside my office door demanding to know what was going on. So, sorry for assuming it was your cat Dr. Porter!