Social media has changed the face of healthcare communications. No longer is online health and medical information coming only in a one-way direction from “official and approved” gatekeeper institutions to consumers. Technology and new online tools are facilitating the sharing of information between health providers and consumers, consumers and consumers, and providers and providers (got that?). This creates a new set of concerns about the accuracy of information being shared and privacy issues, but it also offers new opportunities to reach people in ways that was not possible before the advent of blogs, social networking sites, podcasts, wikis, message boards, videocasts and other peer-to-peer services.
Dmitriy Kruglyak of the Medical Blog Network and the upcoming Healthcare Blogging Summit has coordinated a large scale collaborative initiative to propagate a vision for how internet communication can change and improve the healthcare system. This HealthTrain Manifesto (based on the model of the seminal Cluetrain Manifesto) seeks to begin a conversation within the healthcare industry on how to best take advantage of the new opportunities these tools represent and how to minimize any potentially negative effects of this “open healthcare” approach.
Some of the key questions to be explored, from the Manifesto, include:
How will consumers find and act upon health information? How will professionals incorporate the latest scientific advances into their practice? How will healthcare institutions respond to increasing demands for transparency? How will the entire healthcare delivery and financing system be transformed by grassroots action?
The purpose of the Manifesto is perhaps best summed up here:
This Manifesto proposes principles under which open media could become a force of positive change in public health and healthcare system. It steers clear of issues that may favor any stakeholder group over another, aside from promoting greater empowerment of individual healthcare consumers and professionals. The goal of this effort is not to offer specific prescriptions for improving healthcare, as different people and groups have different ideas. The objective is to propose general principles under which open expression and discussion can force system change for the better. This is work in progress that will benefit from constructive criticism.
The Manifesto lays out 18 Theses, or principles, that will eventually be used to develop standards to guide the application of open health media. The document goes into more depth on each one, but briefly they are:
- Openness
- Empowerment
- Conversation
- Empathy
- Trust
- Critical Thinking
- Guidance
- Control
- Credentials
- Transparency
- Privacy
- Anonymity
- Scientific Validity
- Conflicts of Interest
- Sponsorship
- Promotion
- Controversy
- Civility and Respect
I participated in the pre-public drafting of the document, and there is now a long list of other supporters of this initative, including bloggers and prominent healthcare industry people. Now that the HealthTrain Manifesto is out in the public domain, we hope that the conversation among all stakeholders will move forward on how we can best promote individual and public health via these new technologies.
The implications of the “open healthcare” movement for social marketing are clear. We — the producers and disseminators of health information — are no longer able to function solely under what Fard Johnmar calls the Command and Control marketing paradigm. We can put our messages out there, but what is actually done with them once in the hands of our audience is not under our control. We must begin to figure out new ways to engage a community of people interested in a particular issue, and empower them to make the information relevant and connected to their lives. We cannot rely on a 30-second TV spot to reach and impress the growing numbers of people who routinely use social media as part of their lifestyle and create content themselves.
Download and read the HealthTrain Manifesto (pdf). If you have a blog, write about it there. Leave comments on the central Manifesto page. Add your endorsement to the list. Let’s figure out this brave new world together because the HealthTrain is speeding down the track and picking up steam.
photo credit: Christian Carollo
Technorati Tags: healthtrain manifesto, open healthcare, cluetrain, health, social media
Nedra helps nonprofits and public agencies create positive change on health and social issues through social marketing and transmedia storytelling strategies at Weinreich Communications since founding the company in 1995. She helps organizations make a difference for the populations they serve by strategically designing programs that draw on state-of-the-art behavior change techniques, digital media approaches and the power of stories. 
Nedra, thank you for this nice highlight.
Please, also do not be shy to mention that coming up with the name “HealthTrain” should be credited to you!
Thanks, Dmitriy, but I wanted the focus of the credit to go to you for conceiving and coordinating this initiative. I just did the fun part!
Thank you! The real fun part begins now – for everyone.