Posts tagged ‘Health Activist Twitter Chat’

March 7th, 2012

#HAchat Recap: The Doctor Will Tweet You Now

by Caitlin

Image via weltbranding

This month we’re focusing on how Health Activists can help both patients & healthcare professionals use the web for health.  Do you ever communicate with your doctor via email? Do you ever see him/her on Twitter or Facebook? With so much health information available online, it seems a little strange that Healthcare Providers (HCPs) are often so disconnected.  We know that there are certain limitations, but there are also ways that doctors can break into the world of social media. Check out what Health Activists (and HCPs!) had to say in this week’s #HAChat.

How is your doctor using social media?

Social media and internet use amongst healthcare providers varies.  Some groups, like the Mayo Clinic or Joslin Diabetes, seem to have it down, while others are using the web and social media to connect to each other and to pharmaceutical companies rather than their patients.  julianna12369: “I’ve seen many doctors and healthcare systems using the web for appointments and test results, not enough in social media #HAchat.”  Many companies offer webinars, but these don’t allow for a personal connection with the patient.  While some Health Activists have connected with doctors through social media, they generally haven’t with their own doctor.

Why don’t doctors and HCPs use social media?

First off, doctors often don’t have the time to connect with patients in the office and offline.  Everyone complains about the fifteen minute slot they get with their physician and how doctors don’t provide the answers/support that patients really need, so when are doctors supposed to be online answering questions and sharing information on top of everything else?

Another reason is fear.  Fear of HIPAA violations and lawsuits. Fear that patients won’t come into the office when they need to or that they will start seeking free advice via email. Anxiety over how they’re supposed to deal with all of the misinformation that’s happening on the web.  And according to SimonSikorskiMD: “a lot of HCPs also fear patients know more than they do :) – in a lot of cases… ePatients do!”

RonanTKavanagh said, “Medicine slow to engage because we are (and have to be) relatively conservative and tend to be risk averse.”. What doctors and healthcare providers don’t  see is the opportunity associate with social media.  One suggestion is that doctors use social media to build their practices. TiffanyAndLupus: “Drs who engage online show they are trustworthy & have good bedside manner which equals more clients.” And drwalker_rph pointed out that he uses Twitter and Facebook to do just this by directing people to his website as well as providing health information to followers.  As julianna12369 pointed out, all the misinformation actually presents an opportunity for doctors to correct myths and establish themselves as reputable leaders of the online community. Healthcare professionals and doctors could team up with credible health sites so they could engage with patients more securely.  Engaging with patients through social media can also make doctors and HCPs better practitioners, as Health Activists and e-Patients are often more informed in some ways than their doctor:

kimmieCollas @SimonSikorskiMD true. I frequently know more abt latest research, med side effects/interactions etc. than docs . . .

TiffanyAndLupus @drwalker_rph Sometimes; though I often feel that HC Providers are lacking & engaging patients will make them better providers :)

Finally, drwalker_rph Isn’t it about HC providers building relationships thru social media? Yes, and developing more “perfect patients”? Engaging patients online is another way for HCPs to make sure that patients are being provided with accurate information about their health, effectively leading to more empowered patients, better patient-doctor relationships, and better care for patients.

Striking a Balance

It’s not all about getting HCPs online, it’s also about keeping the balance between online and in-person interactions and between the responsibilities of the doctor and the patient.  How do doctors keep patients coming into their offices, while also providing sufficient support on the day-to-day?  How do doctors and patients approach each other as members of the same team?  While doctors have traditionally been idealized by patients, times have changed, and now doctors are seeing the opposite happen:  SimonSikorskiMD “I’ve seen it from doctor’s perspective too – ePatients come in and THEY think they’re “godlike” & docs are the “provider of care” .” So while having doctors engage in social media might help humanize them a bit and build more reciprocal relationships (NataliaForsyth), Health Activists need to approach healthcare providers in a respectful way and vice versa:

SimonSikorskiMD Attn: Health Activists – educate docs on the benefits of teaming up w/ them | don’t push that “you know best”

Diabetic_Dad @MsWZ If we want doc’s to collaborate, our approach needs to begin in that tone/spirit.

TiffanyAndLupus Some doctors feel threatened by “ePatients”. They need to understand we want to help improve our care not belittle them.

So when you go into your appointments, know your stuff, but present it in a non-challenging and professional way. For example:  julianna12369 “Keeping an open dialog with my Dr. about what I’ve researched helps. “What can YOU tell me about treatment X that I read about.“  At the same time, HCPs should know that: joltdude, “Epatient does not equal googlechondriac. More often, it gives perhaps a few more venues of opportunity.”

Empowering Your HCP

First off, docs, don’t be afraid to tell your patients to use social media.  It’s a great resource not only for new information, but also for support and real world advice that is hard to give (MrMikeLawson).  TiffanyAndLupus said, “I’d like my Dr to know a few credible sites I can access online pertaining to my illness/health. Perhaps if Healthcare professionals/Drs teamed up w/ prominent & credible health sites they could engage patients more securely.” That being said, it’s the duty of Health Activists everywhere to educate their healthcare providers about online communities.   Health Activists need to help doctors sift through all the information out there to find great communities and resources that they can prescribe for other patients.  It would be great for both patients and doctors if doctors and HCPs could actually get involved in online communities.  They would act as an important resource for patients while also getting a finger on the pulse of the community.  Doctors and HCPs should attend conferences where patient voices are heard.  There are lots of ways to get involved, it’s just a matter of finding a way that your HCP is comfortable with.

And in case you ever wondered what impact your community has on doctors and HCPS:

@SimonSikorskiMD: HCP’s pay closer attention to passionate groups… rarely to passionate individuals

What are other ways doctors and HCPs can engage patients through social media? What else can Health Activists do to bring doctors into online communities? Feel free to send additional ideas to editorial@wegohealth.com!

Make sure to join us next week for our very special #HAChat on chronic pain and what you think healthcare professionals should know, hosted by Pam Ressler of Tufts Pain Research, Education, & Policy (PREP) Program .


 

Categorywego health | Comment3 Comments »

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October 25th, 2011

#HAchat Recap: Health Activists talk Health Technology

by Amanda

We had a great Health Activist Tweetchat today on the subject of health technology. We wanted to know what patients are using now when it comes to health apps, games, and devices – and who better to ask than the savvy Health Activists that lead them?

 

Here are our top take-aways:

1. Health Activists are REALLY interested in apps related to their conditions and activism but aren’t convinced the right ones exist just yet.

@TiffanyandLupus “T1: I’m still looking for a #lupus specific mobile app; none yet :( #hachat

@KatharineS84 @wegohealth Unfortunately, I’m unaware of any apps specifically for #cysticfibrosis – can’t think of what there would be. #HAchat

Everyone was excited to share their favorite apps (read below for a full list) and how they are able to manage/track/and keep in touch with their health mobile-y through their smart phones, tablets, or laptops. Most apps seem to focus on diet and exercise – and more condition-specific apps could really be a game-changer for the health app industry.

 

2. Health Activists are open to apps sponsored by pharmaceutical companies as long as they’re actually helpful for the community – and even more, they’re interested in helping build them right!

@KatharineS84 “YES.  Me too. RT @susanmees: KatharineS84 Itd be gr8 if you could test it before they launched.  Id LOVE to test apps. #HAchat”

Utility and usability are key. If you build it, they will come – but if it’s not great – they won’t stay. If healthcare companies got into the app creation world – would they be sure to get the integral patient input to make their app the best it can be? I would put a Health Activist app tester up against any techy insider – these patients know what their communities want and will tell you honestly how to improve. How can we work together to make this happen?

3. Health Activists aren’t completely sold on the gameification of health and are focused on making sure the community is the on getting the rewards (rather than the individual).

@TiffanyandLupus “Nope! RT @wegohealth: Ok! Topic 2: There is a lot of discussion about health games and “gameification” – do you play health games? #hachat”

@kdhoffman2 “gamification seems 2 mean many things.is it applying game mechanics to worksite health events (for example) or creating v.g.s 4 hlth #HAchat”

@NateOsit “@wegohealth Mixed feelings re: gamification.  I think there needs to be more community incentives for health, not individual rewards #HAchat”

@NateOsit “T3 Skeptical about new expensive devices.  Doesn’t address the very basic issues that have biggest health impacts #HAchat”

Companies are working to add play into our lives through techy games and “reward systems” to make our app, game, and device use more social and more interactive overall. But will this really make things easier for patients? Only time will tell. Until we truly have a clear definition of where gamification of Health Care is going – Health Activists (and we) will remain skeptical. Is the goal truly: patient first? What are the real benefits?

 

Health technology isn’t everywhere yet – but it’s getting there. Patients and healthcare professionals alike want to streamline care and make every minute (and treatment) count. If we can get there through technology safely (and affordably) – this could be huge for everyone involved in the world of healthcare.

 

Here are the apps recommended by Health Activists during our chat:

  • Weightdate
  • Maymyrun
  • Couch to 5k
  • Care_Coach
  • Glucose Buddy
  • I Manage Migraines
  • Rheumtracker
  • Glooko
  • PeriodTracker
  • EndoGoddess
  • Speed Anatomy
  • Foldit
  • iTriage

 


Categoryhealth social media, Health Technology, October, patient empowerment, pharma, Twitter chat, wego health | Comment1 Comment »

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October 6th, 2011

#HAchat Recap: All About Health Activist Burnout

by Amanda

Burnout happens. This was the general consensus we came to after our awesome Health Activist Tweetchat on Tuesday. Like flammable objects beginning to ignite, burnout takes on many forms in its infancy. As one moves progressively closer to the “burnout zone” – many similarities arise. And, like kindling, once you’re burning – it’s not easy to stop. But we did our best to look closer at the process, zeroing-in on what burns out Health Activists, and how we can rise from the ashes – a bit charred but stronger.

First up – we talked about what “burnout” actually is.

Wikipedia told us that burnout is: “Burnout is a psychological term for the experience of long-term exhaustion and diminished interest.”

We learned: burnout is easier to come to when you’re living with a chronic illness. We wondered what the difference is between depression and burnout – if there even is a difference.

Then we honed-in on what burnout means for the Health Activist community in particular. As patient leaders and those active in social media (something that leads to its own breed of exhaustion) – how does burnout happen to bloggers and community leaders? Here is a rundown of what we came up with…

Causes of Health Activist Burnout:

  • Feeling the pressure to post consistently
  • When you’re “out of ideas” or creatively “stuck” – like writers’ block
  • When you want to talk about more than your health
  • Feeling like your voice isn’t being heard
  • Feeling as though you aren’t making a change (or can’t tell if you are)
  • Losing sight of your goals
  • Not feeling understood
  • Lack of motivation and others’ willingness to participate

Symptoms of Health Activist Burnout:

  • Fatigue
  • The inability to post consistently
  • Abandoning your blog or social network without notice
  • Changing the subject when writing to more general topics (avoiding talking about health)
  • Fewer Facebook updates
  • Loss of accountability
  • Lack of motivation and your own willingness to participate

“Cures” for Health Activist Burnout:

  • Take time to do things you enjoy
  • Make sure you have someone to turn to
  • Take care of yourself before the world
  • Activists need to be activiated, motivated, and encouraged, too. –AndreaHardaway
  • Peer-support helps, as does training in self-care and the risks of compassion fatigue –itsthebunk
  • Have a creative go-to or idea-bank where you save up for a rainy (burnout day) (this one was mine!)
  • Write when you can write
  • When you can’t write – say so
  • Take technology vacations – turn off the phone, the laptop, and take care of yourself. –NataliaElizaBea
  • Burnout is easier to handle by stepping away or interacting with community members you’re close with. –joltdude
  • Being reminded that it’s okay to put some things on the back burner. Perfection shouldn’t be the goal –KatharineS84

So the question is – can burnout be stopped beforehand or can it only be fixed or dealt with after it happens?

  • Not sure there’s a cure – it’s a cycle… Burnout needs to be dealt with proactively, before it happens. It’s much more difficult to recover afterwards. –tmana
  • I think burnout can be slowed down but not stopped before it happens. –joltdude
  • I think you can perform “burnout maintenance” by doing a few things a week just for yourself. Sometimes burnout is unavoidable, though. –NataliaElizaBea
  • We see active members announce they’re taking break from support groups because of burnout. Then they return, sometimes months later. –teaminspire
  • I think burnout is inevitable at some point – we’re human. But things can be done to make it easier and lessen the effects. –KatharineS84

 

Then we discussed the best ways (I think) for avoiding burnout – trying to stay steeped in the opposite – your enthusiasm for and energetic focus on your community and Health Activism.

 

How Health Activists can stay enthusiastic and inspired to lead (such GREAT ideas here from folks):

  • Try something new!
  • Use other media, pics, people, and outside sources to inspire yourself
  • Make connections with someone else in the community. Help each other stay motivated and inspired. –KatharineS84
  • Mentor someone and/or find someone to mentor you. –itsthebunk
  • Don’t be all health all the time.
  • Share other parts of yourself so you feel less pressured to deliver the same thing. –KatharineS84
  • Health Activists need to find/connect with newcomers to the Health Activist community. Their energy and enthusiasm can keep us going! –MiriamsHope
  • Keep your main goal in mind – remember WHY you’re a Health Activist.
  • Banish perfectionism. Keep it real. Share support with selected peers. Take breaks. Ask for feedback. Change the subject sometimes. –itsthebunk
  • When you feel most inspired – make a note or save the correspondence. Come back to this when you self-doubt or feel burned out. (mine)
  • Activists engaging members in off-topic (non-disease) discussions can help. Fave foods, pets, “bucket list” discussions. –teaminspire
  • It’s key to remember how many lives you are impacting. We GEt to make a difference and we’re not alone. –AndreaHardaway

 

Such great ideas! And I’m sure there are more. What are your thoughts on these topics?

Check out some great tweets in the Storify recap here:



CategoryBurnout, October, Twitter chat, wego health | Comment1 Comment »

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October 4th, 2011

Today’s #HAchat Topic!

by Amanda

Join us today at 3pm ET for our Health Activist Twitter Chat – kicking off our new #HAchat schedule and our theme for the month of October.
Since the month has just begun – let’s chat about that nagging, yet tiring cloak we’ve all felt upon us. Burnout.

 

What does it feel like to be the burnt, broken match – unable to reignite? What causes your energy to start draining and the burnout to start setting in? How can those of us who lead online communities, blog, tweet, Facebook and communicate so often – find a necessary break?

 

No matter what form your burnout takes on – this will be a great discussion to have. We’ll spend our first #HAchat talking about burnout and move on to another topic next Tuesday.

 

Join us in the #HAchat room on tweetchat or twitter - and we’ll “see” you at 3pm ET!

 

CategoryBurnout, October, Twitter chat | CommentNo Comments »

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September 29th, 2011

Announcing our new #HAchat schedule!

by Amanda

After hearing from folks about our Health Activist Twitter Chat – we’ve decided on a brand new schedule (and plan)! We hope you’ll be able to join us as often as you like and that this will give folks many opportunities to jump in and connect, across conditions, with Health Activists and the topics that are relevant to (and fun for) online health leaders.

 

Join us every Tuesday afternoon at 3pm ET on Twitter (as always, we recommend the awesome tweetchat: http://tweetchat.com/room/HAchat) using the hashtag #HAchat.

 

We’ll remind you Tuesday mornings and tell you what we’re going to chat about. We hope you’ll tweet along, lurk, and invite your community members to come by and share their thoughts! No matter where you are on your Health Activist journey – we’ll talk about things that impact everyone: patients, bloggers, health social media users, caregivers, friends, and advocates.

 

Here’s what our October #HAchat schedule looks like (so you can add a calendar reminder like I’m going to):

Tuesday, October 4th at 3pm ET

Tuesday, October 11th 3pm ET

Tuesday, October 18th 3pm ET

Tuesday, October 24th 3pm ET

Tuesday, October 31st 3pm ET

 

And because we know how busy everyone is – we’re going to start the chats at a quick 30 minutes each. This way, we’ll propose 3 topics (T1, T2, T3) to discuss and get some great conversation started. Then, hopefully folks can continue to chime in throughout the rest of the day. Let’s inspire each other, get great discussions started, and spark future blog posts together. And be sure to check here on the blog every Wednesday for a recap!

 

Got an idea for a chat theme or a few topics you’d love to pose to other Health Activists? Tell us in a comment, tweet, or email at editorial@wegohealth.com :)


CategoryBurnout, October, Twitter chat | Comment1 Comment »

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September 6th, 2011

Share your thoughts: New time for our #HAchat

by Amanda

We have hosted (and loved) our first two Health Activist Tweetchats (#HAchat) but we want to make the chat even better! As we’ll be discussing more this month – everyone is on different, very busy schedules – but we’d really like to pick a time for #HAchat that works for as many Health Activists as possible and host it as frequently as you’d like! So, if you could take a minute (and, I promise, it shouldn’t take a second more!) to fill out this poll – that would be awesome! Once we’ve gathered a bunch of responses, we’ll be sure to let you know when the next chat is and what the #HAchat schedule will look like from then on!

Vote below:

CategoryHealth Activist Poll, September, Twitter, Twitter chat, wego health, Working and Health Activism | CommentNo Comments »

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August 29th, 2011

Health Activist Twitter Chat: Advocating for Others

by Amanda

CategoryAdvocating for Others, August, caregiving, Twitter chat, wego health | Comment1 Comment »

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August 22nd, 2011

Join us for our August #HAchat!

by Amanda

#HAchat? YES!

Let’s chat! We’re excited to hear your thoughts on the topics we’ve been discussing this month and congregate around the topic of Advocating for Others with you. We’ll be hosting another Health Activist Twitter Chat this Friday! As we did for the last week of July, we’ll be meeting on Twitter at 1pm ET to exchange ideas and meet new people. Last month’s chat was a great opportunity for us to speak candidly about empowerment and how we can go about defining and pursuing it in our own lives and in our communities. I’m looking forward to hearing what you have to say this time around.

 

We’ll be discussing: caring for others, finding help and support for yourself and others, and taking a critical look at advocacy.

 

Join us Friday at 1pm ET online and use the hastag #HAchat (we recommend Tweetchat for its streamlined and easy-to-follow-along set up). And the more the merrier. When it comes to topics like these, having a diverse set of chatters and various perspectives is not only integral but also a lot of fun. Invite your community members and online friends to join us – everyone is welcome! See you then :)

 

CategoryAdvocating for Others, August, Twitter, Twitter chat | Comment3 Comments »

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August 3rd, 2011

First Health Activist Chat Recap: Empowerment!

by Amanda

Last Friday we hosted the very first Health Activist Twitter Chat (#HAchat) and it was a great success! Our topic of the chat was “empowerment” and we heard incredible feedback from our participants! We met some new Health Activists and were so glad to have them weigh-in on a topic our community cares so much about. One of our questions was “Are you over it? Is “empowerment” all talk?” and we learned, from your enthusiasm that this whole empowerment thing is just beginning! Thanks to everyone who joined us and look out for our next #HAchat later this month.

Our Topics were:

  1. “Empowerment” is a word thrown around often. What does “being empowered” mean to YOU?
  2. Topic 2: HOW do you empower yourself?
  3. Topic 3: How do you empower OTHERS?
     

    • What if someone isn’t ready to be empowered? How do you help?
  4. Topic 4: How do we take empowerment to the next level?
     

    • Are you over it? Is “empowerment” all talk?

Read on to check out the collected tweets (wisdom, really) from the amazing Health Activists participants…

read more »

CategoryEmpowering Your Community and Yourself, health activists, health social media, July, patient empowerment, Twitter, Twitter chat, WEGO Health Community | Comment3 Comments »

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