Category: Social Media

Patient Voice in Health Care

Today I’m participating in an event for patients, family members and health care professionals at Mayo Clinic in Rochester. It’s called “The Voice of the Patient in Harmony with Care: Safety Through Patient and Provider Partnerships.” My presentation, which I’m giving at 9:30 a.m. and 12:45 p.m., is entitled, “The Internet and Partnership Communication Opportunities of the Future.”

I’m embedding the slides from my presentation here, and including some key links below. I would appreciate any comments, questions or other feedback from the participants, and of course if any want to become SMUGgles, you’re completely welcome.


Here is our Mayo Clinic Podcasts blog, including the posts on POTS and Niemann-Pick Disease Type C.
Here is our Mayo Clinic page in Facebook, and the Organ Transplant group, as well as the Mayo Clinic-sponsored CarePages service.

Here is our Mayo Clinic YouTube channel, as well as one of the patient story videos from Rhonda King.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFYiaMuZY4g]

This is the link, I believe, to the Long QT group on Yahoo that she mentioned.

Those who want to learn more about social media can enroll in SMUG, or just start with the Core Courses or the Facebook curriculum.

Please feel free to engage here in the comments, and discuss how these powerful tools could help meet important communication needs in the patient/provider relationship.

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Five Free Follow-Ups For Before 5 p.m.

I enjoy giving webinar presentations like this one, but I often think of slides I wish I would have added, and examples I would like to share, after I’ve submitted the presentation file to the organizers. And sometimes I forget to mention some points that I had intended.

One of the beauties of blogging is that I can share some additional notes and highlights so that people who participated in the webinar can explore on their own. It lets me make sure I covered the key points before the presentation even starts. Some of this may be review for long-time SMUGgles, but you may find portions helpful as well.

The main point about doing this before 5 p.m. is to not procrastinate. Those in the EST time zone will have a couple of hours after the webinar, while the PST gang has the whole afternoon. But since you’re reading this now, why not get started right away?

  1. Observe some examples. Check out our Mayo Clinic Podcast Blog (and particularly this post on Niemann-Pick Disease Type C), our Mayo Clinic YouTube Channel, our Facebook page and our News Blog. See this story from yesterday’s Wall Street Journal that includes a link to a Mayo Clinic Medical Edge video story, and this post from the WSJ’s Health Blog, which included one of our Flip videos from our YouTube channel. Besides providing information directly to consumers and potential patients, “new media” tools like web video and audio can help generate or enhance your traditional news coverage.
  2. Complete Podcasting 101, which is the first course in the Podcasting curriculum at SMUG. In the coming days, as you work through the 100-level courses, you will be able to create your own podcast and have it listed in iTunes for exactly $0.00. It’s all free. Like my podcast, Chancellor Conversations, this won’t have the production quality you would want for your official organization podcasts, but by working through the process step-by-step you will strip away the mystery, and no one will be able to tell you “it’s too complicated.” Then you can spend a few hundred dollars for some better recording equipment, and develop a really solid, low-cost, high-quality communication vehicle.
  3. Enroll in SMUG. The tuition is $37,700 less than Johns Hopkins. If you or your organization spend at least a few hundred dollars on a webinar, or thousands to attend a conference, to learn about social media, wouldn’t it be silly to not take the next step and get some hands-on experience, particularly when it’s free? Besides joining the SMUG Facebook group, you can friend me (be sure to mention the webinar), or follow me on Twitter. SMUG’s mission is reflected in our motto, and our goal is to help you discover what you can do at a ridiculously low cost (or perhaps even for free) and without any support from your IT department. In economic times like this, as Jacopo asked Edmond Dantes in The Count of Monte Christo, “How is that a bad plan?”
  4. Check out Slideshare.net. I thought Elizabeth Tracey’s point about connecting audio files with Powerpoint presentations was good, and Slideshare is a way you can do it today, for free. Here’s a link to one of my slidecasts from the Podcasting curriculum to demonstrate. Slideshare is like YouTube for PowerPoints; you can embed it in your own blog or site, and also can make it available in the “marketplace” for others to find and embed, increasing your reach.
  5. Complete Social Media 101, which is part of the Core Courses curriculum at SMUG and originally was my “12-Step Social Media Program for PR Professionals.” As in all similar programs, the first step is to admit that you have a problem. Social Media 101 will give you an introduction to the broad scope of social media tools that may have application in your work.

In addition to the five free things before 5 p.m., here’s a bonus you should do after 6 tonight. It’s not free, but you’ll be glad you did it:

Get a Flip video camera.

You can find them for $150 or so at Wal-Mart or Best Buy. If you’re into the delayed gratification thing and want to work through more of the SMUG curriculum, I hear you can get them even cheaper at Amazon.com. Consider it a Christmas gift to yourself. Spend another $15 or so for a tripod. You’ll want to have this for personal use; it’s the video camera you can always have with you, so you never miss those magic moments because you forgot to bring the camera bag. But then take the Flip to work and see how you can use it for business purposes.

I hope you found the presentation (and this post) helpful, and would appreciate any feedback in the comments below.

Social Media Measurement Survey

I’m a member of the Institute for Public Relations’ Commission on PR Measurement and Evaluation, and recently  was asked by some commission colleages to complete a survey about social media and to encourage others to participate. If you work in public relations, please take a few minutes to complete the survey by clicking here.

Academic Freedom

Other than exploring the social media applications and implications of this year’s election, I’ve stayed away from political advocacy on SMUG. But I do feel compelled to share this YouTube video — Obama’s Attack Ad Against Himself — because it is the kind of social media creation that no campaign could afford to put on TV (and it didn’t come from a campaign.)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3LZNc_TP_o]

I mean, no campaign could possibly afford to buy a TV commercial that was four minutes long! (Er…check that, no campaign that hadn’t disabled fraud-prevention safeguards on credit card contributions could afford such an ad.)

From my perspective, Charles Krauthammer’s column on why he is voting “for the guy who can tell the lion from the lamb” expresses the substantive reasons why I support Sen. McCain and have concerns about Sen. Obama. I also thought his follow-up column was excellent. Here are some other opinions that I find compelling, from PowerLine, Thomas Sowell and David Frum.

I want all SMUGgles to know that it’s absolutely fine to disagree with the Chancellor, and that there will be no retribution reflected in course grading. (Especially since we don’t offer letter grades!)

But given the political tilt I see in the social media world (particularly in Twitterville), I also wanted to be on the record expressing my hope that Sen. McCain will be elected today. If professors at state-funded universities can express their political opinions at taxpayer expense, it seems fair for the Chancellor of a virtual university that receives no government funding (or funding of any kind, for that matter) to have the same academic freedom.

If Sen. Obama wins, I will hope that I’m wrong about him and will pray the best for him and for the rest of us.

SMUG 100-Level Courses on the Way

While our 100-level curriculum for Podcasting has been completed (and we have a strong start in Yammer, too), I’m feeling the need to finish the entry-level sequence, particularly in Facebook.

So for long-time SMUGgles, you may find some of the upcoming posts a bit elementary, but please bear with us…and take this as an opportunity to “give back” by sharing your experiences in the comments.

I have about 15 courses at the 100 level that I’ve identified by haven’t completed, so I’m going to try to get those finished in the next couple of weeks.

And meanwhile, if anyone wants to develop an official SMUG seal, that would be much appreciated by generations of SMUGgles yet to come.