Facebook Tells Pharma Brands They Must Allow Comments May 22, 2011
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Facebook, Pharma, Web 2.0.15 comments
It was an important and clearly predictable step from Facebook to tell pharma brands that they must allow comments on their Facebook pages. Andrew Spong, Marc Monseau and Alex Butler had quite positive comments about that in a Facebook discussion. We will certainly include this in our open-access guide for pharma companies.
Pharma brand marketers that disable comments on their Facebook pages are in for a change. As predicted, Facebook will no longer allow pharma brands – which are typically highly risk averse when it comes to discussions about their drugs and products in social media environments – to turn off commenting on their pages.
In an effort to keep Facebook a forum for open dialogue, the company will not allow admins of new pages to disable commenting on their pages, according to a company spokesperson. In addition, brands with preexisting pages will be required to allow comments after August 15, according to an email sent by Facebook reps notifying clients of the changes. The email was posted yesterday to the Intouch Soul blog, associated with pharma marketing agency Intouch Solutions.
Facebook diagnosis by surgeon saves friend February 22, 2011
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Facebook, Medicine, Web 2.0.4 comments
It might only be a Facebook promo article, but I still think it’s interesting and it reflects the current situation between doctors and their patients when they can interact online. An excerpt from a recent BBC article:
Peter Ball had suffered from stomach ache for a while and at first thought he had pulled a muscle
A surgeon potentially saved the life of an old schoolfriend by diagnosing his symptoms for appendicitis on Facebook.
Rahul Velineni, from the Princess of Wales Hospital, Bridgend, saw Peter Ball’s status update on his stomach pains and his trouble walking.
He sent the 30-year-old from Cheshire a message telling him he should see a doctor immediately.
By the time surgeons operated, Mr Ball’s appendix was already perforated, which could have been fatal.
Health 2.0 News: From Mobile Search to Virtual Fluoroscopy December 22, 2010
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Facebook, Health 2.0, Medical Search, Medicine 2.0, Mobile, Video, Web 2.0, What's on the web?.add a comment
- Mobile application search on Mimvi.com
A ProPublica investigation found that more than a dozen of the school’s doctors were paid speakers in apparent violation of its policy—two of them earning six figures since last year.
- The VCL’s are software applications that simulate X-Ray Fluoroscopy equipment using a real-time interactive 3D Games engine (like the PlayStation or X Box).
- What to Get the Scientist in Your Life: Christmas presents
- Word Lens instantly translates printed words from one language to another using the video camera on your iPhone.
Facebook stories and scandals: Mayo Clinic deals with them November 22, 2010
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Communication, Facebook, Health, Health 2.0, Healthcare, Hospital, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Web 2.0.4 comments
We all know that Mayo Clinic is an example for all the healthcare institutions in the world regarding the inclusion of social media in their communication. Here are two stories that happened with Mayo Clinic and that they could handle properly.
1) A Latvian doctor at Mayo sent a controversial letter to a Latvian government official in 2009 in which he stated “as a physician, [he] cannot treat equally Russians and Latvians.” Now the letter was translated and caused serious troubles to Mayo as users left comments on the wall of the Mayo Facebook page. Mayo could deal with this properly by using fast, accurate communication with users, open comments and they tried to “flood” the stream of negative comments with positive news and announcements. Later, they asked users to comment on this issue on a different discussion tab leaving the main page for other news.
For a clinic having such open and social media centered communication, I think they cannot let this happen without consequences, they should have fired the particular doctor for 1) publishing racist comments and 2) for keeping the positive attention/reputation they have been building for a long time. Instead, they posted a message saying that they “have talked with Dr. Slucis regarding the nature, tone and perception of his comments. Regarding every other aspect, the way they handled the situation was perfect.
2) A patient posted a picture on the Mayo Facebook page about a wound/infection and asked for help. As I teach students about such situations in the Internet in Medicine course, they should let the patient know that they can’t diagnose online and provide them with real contact addresses. That’s exactly what Mayo Clinic did in this situation. Although other comments came with diagnostic ideas and miracle cures, but that’s not Mayo’s problem.
Mayo Clinic could deal with two serious issues and is still an example not only for healthcare institutions planning to use social media, but also for any kind of companies that try to promote and defend a brand online.
Webicina on Facebook September 7, 2010
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Facebook, Web 2.0, Webicina.4 comments
You may have noticed that Webicina, the first medical social media guidance service, is on Facebook. We post the latest improvements and the newest selections, packages in the Facebook page first so feel free to
- like us
- comment on our selections
- suggest new topics to cover
- or add new resources you would like us to evaluate.
Let’s find better and better medical resources together.
Health 2.0 News: From Facebook to the Anatomy of Trolls July 29, 2010
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Facebook, Health 2.0, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Web 2.0, What's on the web?.1 comment so far
At some point the courts will test the limits of physician dialog on physician networks. And hopefully fear of legal retribution won’t hobble these new forms of interaction which stand to improve the quality and efficiency of patient care.
So if you are concerned about dialog on a medical web 2.0 platform, you should be just as concerned with dialog around the water cooler.
Fascinating story from the early days of biotech: How three errors in a 166 amino acid protein sequence ended up being the deciding factor in a showdown between two companies who both wanted to patent the genes behind the protein that triggers red blood cell formation.
Personalized Genetics: FDA, DTC and GINA June 22, 2010
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Facebook, FDA, Genetic testing, genetics, Genome.add a comment
Here are some interesting news and announcements to keep you absolutely up-to-date regarding the improvements of personalized medicine.
There are a number of reasons why DTC genetic testing may soon find itself subject to increased federal regulatory oversight. However, 23andMe’s widely publicized data error should not be one of those reasons. In fact, the sample swap, while unfortunately timed, actually presents a compelling argument in favor of the direct-to-consumer model for genetic testing.
A personalized medicine study from the Coriell Institute for Medical Research suggests that patients who undergo genetic testing are more likely to change their personal habits, writes Emily Singer at the Technology Review Editors’ blog.
- Have you seen the Genome Alberta Facebook page?
Stanford University School of Medicine today said that it will offer a new course that gives medical and graduate students an option to study their personal genotype data. The university said that it believes it is the first medical school to offer students such a course. However, the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine offered its fourth-year medical students a similar course in personalized medicine this past year.
Health 2.0 News: Facebook Privacy and Google Flu Trends May 21, 2010
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Facebook, Google, Health, Health 2.0, Medical case, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Ted Talks, Video, Web 2.0, What's on the web?.1 comment so far
- How to choose clinical trials search websites: A great and detailed review of the clinical trial search sites with clear descriptions and instructions about which one to choose.
- Google Flu Trends estimates off: It’s good to know that scientifically it’s not as useful even if it sounds quite interesting.
Google Flu Trends is not as accurate at estimating rates of laboratory-confirmed influenza as CDC national surveillance programs, according to a new study from the University of Washington.
- The Facebook Privacy Triangle: Tips and tricks from an internet safety specialist.
- PolySpell and ChemSpell: It is an advanced spelling correction system (works well with medical, chemical and scientific words as well).
- Nathan Myhrvold: Could this laser zap malaria? (TED Talk)
- Medting, the clinical case collection site just went through a major redesign.
Is Your Facebook Account Safe? May 19, 2010
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Facebook, Medicine, Web 2.0.1 comment so far
As Facebook has over 400 millions users now and as I’ve been writing about the issue of safety in the medical segments of social media for a long time, the following question is becoming more and more relevant. Are your Facebook account settings safe? First, did you know you can search in Facebook updates? Well let’s reveal the potential safety issues in your accounts by using ReclaimPrivacy.
- Drag this link to your web browser bookmarks bar: Scan for Privacy
- Go to your Facebook privacy settings and then click that bookmark once you are on Facebook.
- You will see a series of privacy scans that inspect your privacy settings and warn you about settings that might be unexpectedly public.
- Follow us on Facebook to hear about the latest updates.
(Hat Tip: Webisztan)
