Facebook’s Organ Donor Project: Aftermath May 11, 2012
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Facebook, Health, Health 2.0, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Web 2.0.add a comment
More than a week ago, we all expected something amazing from Facebook as they were about to hold a press conference focusing on a new health-related initiative. Then Facebook announced they would let users mark themselves as organ donors on their own timelines. While it is a nice initiative, I expected much much more from a community site with almost a billion users, to be honest.
“Many of those people — an average of 18 people per day –- will die waiting, because there simply aren’t enough organ donors to meet the need,” Facebook notes in a blog entry explaining the move. “Medical experts believe that broader awareness about organ donation could go a long way toward solving this crisis.”
As the video above explains, designating yourself as an organ donor is easy. All you need to do is go to your Timeline, click on “Life Event” and then “Health & Wellness.” Then, you’ll see the option for “Organ Donor.” At that point, you can add when and where you registered and your personal story.
What about the aftermath, the results?
6000 people registered… Compared to the 1 billion users, we couldn’t say it is a real success. We will see how it evolves. But Facebook must come up with more creative projects.
7 Quick Action Tips for Using Social Media in Healthcare May 8, 2012
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Medicine, Web 2.0, Medicine 2.0, Health 2.0, Interview.2 comments
Vic Phillips has been publishing interviews about success stories in social media and now he invited me to be his guest. We produced a video as I answered some of his questions. Here are the topics we covered:
1. Getting started with social media. He talks about the importance of a blog and three things you need to do to get started.
2. Implement what you have learned
3. The ROI for healthcare – R.O.I. in “healthcare speak” means the Return on Information.
4. Ways to use social media and examples vary based on your needs
5. Protect your reputation
6. Time Management: Saving Time
7. Tools to us for efficiency
Exploding head syndrome: From blog post to community May 7, 2012
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Blogging, Health, Health 2.0, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Web 2.0.add a comment
A few years ago, I wrote a blog post about a weird condition, the exploding head syndrome which generated a huge traffic and about 200 comments. Not short ones, but really interesting, detailed, true patient stories from around the world and my post is now 4th in the global ranking of relevant search results.
Exploding head syndrome is a rare condition that causes the sufferer to occasionally experience a tremendously loud noise as if from within his or her own head, usually described as an explosion or a roar. This usually occurs within an hour or two of falling asleep, but is not the result of a dream. Although perceived as tremendously loud, the noise is usually not accompanied by pain.
That’s how a blog post designed for a specialized audience in a special topic can become a real database of relevant information for patients. Real example of the long tail effect.
An excerpt from one of the comments:
I’m not alone and this is such a relief!!! I think we need a Facebook page. I’ve had this off and on for about 15 years – just had one last night and I’m still out of sorts from it. I awaken terrified with my heart pounding from the sound of an enormous BANG in my head. When this happens I wake up clutching my face – often as I awaken I think “I am dead”. Unlike other people though, I do experience a physical sensation on my face – nose and mouth area – like someone has lightly slapped my face.
Like this:
Scienceroll.com: Weekly Introduction May 6, 2012
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Medicine.add a comment
I’m in the global top 25 doctors on Twitter and the only European so if you are looking for interesting articles and news about medicine 2.0 or health 2.0, find me on Twitter.
The Social MEDia Course: The global format of my university course focusing on medicine and social media for medical students, physicians and also patients with Prezis, tests and gamification.
Webicina.com is my service that curates medical content in social media for free for medical professionals and e-patients.
PeRSSonalized Medicine is the simplest, free, customizable medical information aggregator covering over 80 medical specialties and conditions in 17 languages!
Scienceroll Search is a personalized medical search engine powered by PolyMeta search and clustering engine. You can choose which databases to search in and which one to exclude from your list. It works with well-known medical search engines and databases and we’re totally open to add new ones or remove those you don’t really like.
List of biomedical and scientific community sites: More than 30 communities with links, descriptions and screenshots.
List of Biomedical video sites: Almost 40 sites featuring scientific or medical videos and videocasts.
Medicine 2.0 Collection: I maintain the biggest collection of links and posts focusing on web 2.0 and medicine.
Doctors 2.0 and You: New Social Media Newsfeed May 4, 2012
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Web 2.0, Webicina.add a comment
We are proud to announce that a new, customizable, social media newsfeed aggregator was launched with a new design on the page of Doctors 2.0 and You which is going to be the healthcare conference of the year! Check out the social media content of all the speakers and their organizations!
News: From Tweetchats to Moore’s Law in Healthcare May 4, 2012
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Health, Health 2.0, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Web 2.0, What's on the web?.add a comment
A new report by PwC found consumers are increasingly turning to social media websites like Facebook and Twitter to find answers to their healthcare concerns, and that this frequently results in seeking out second opinions for previously diagnosed problems.
- Social Media in Healthcare infographics
Games could be the most important digital health tool of the 21st century and have a highly influential impact on the engagement pharmaceutical companies foster with health care professionals, patients and the public. Yet it is tempting for people to separate them from the ‘serious’ business of work, education and health.
A third of US social media users say it could change the way they think about their medicines, according to a new poll. The findings are part of a new survey which confirms the power of social networking to spread information about health, and influence consumers through authoritative sources and through peers and other online influencers.
Moore’s Law, which is more a rule of thumb than a law, originally applied to computer hardware and the notion that the number of transistors that can be placed on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. The law has been used to describe the speed of advance in a wide range of technologies.
Android and Medicine: Ideas? May 2, 2012
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Health 2.0, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Mobile, Video, Web 2.0.1 comment so far
I was asked to contribute to the development of medical apps for Android with my ideas in a course at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. I will help students come up with meaningful and exciting medical apps.
I’ve written about Android in medicine several times and now I’m asking you whether you have ideas about it or you know iPhone apps which should have Android alternatives as well.
Data in Diabetes April 30, 2012
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Data, e-patient.add a comment
As a physician and genomics researcher, I’m a man of data so I loved to see the approach of Dan Hon regarding type 2 diabetes and the data he acquired every day about himself which helped him get better.
He resolved to do something about it. Being a geek, he decided to measure and quantify the health factors (weight, body fat, activity, blood sugar) that contribute to diabetes. He’s lost 30 lbs since the new year, and has gotten pretty far into reversing his diabetes. He’s detailed his experience with various kinds of monitoring tools, and written a bit of a rant about what needs to be fixed in order to make this easy for anyone with a diabetes diagnosis to follow in his footsteps.
