OrganizedWisdom Health Blog

Health 2.0 Northeast kickoff

Thanks to F. Mark Modzelewski and the others who put together last night's networking and panel discussion in Cambridge! Above you see Steve Krein, me, and Unity Stoakes. I was fascinated by the wide range of companies out there, and got to meet some great people, including Shannon Brownlee, author of Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine is Making Us Sicker and Poorer.

Health 2.0 Northeast!

OrganizedWisdom co-founder and CEO Steve Krein will be among the panelists at the Health 2.0 Northeast forum being held in Cambridge, Mass. today. (Well, tomorrow, but it'll most likely be "today" -- Wednesday -- by the time you read this.)

David E. Williams of the Health Business Blog has a good writeup of the event here. Steve's partner, Unity Stoakes, will be there, and so will I! I'm looking forward to meeting some of the excellent people I've been hearing about as we keep building OrganizedWisdom's quality and reach.

I believe last-minute registrations are still being accepted at healthforum2.com. Hope to see some of you there!

People Want More From Search; Tell Us What You Want

From TechCrunch:

A new study from the University of Southern California’s Center for the Digital Future has found that a growing number of people no longer believe that search results are reliable and accurate.

The survey found that only 51% of people trust information provided by search engines, down from 62% in 2006. Google, as the most popular search engine in the United States, isn’t trusted by nearly half (49%) of the people who use it, an interesting result.

We're working on the problem as it relates specifically to people being able to find the best health information, services, and resources.  Imagine if you had an expert doing the searching for you. A real person. Someone to research for you, weed out the clutter, and guide you to only the very best.

That's what we're doing now at OrganizedWisdom Health.  Our community of physician-guided health advocates are now taking requests and will create a WisdomCard on any health topic you ask for. A WisdomCard is an organized and vetted set of links on any health topic. Several people are even requesting WisdomCards be created on their doctor, local hospital, and specific health products.

We've been getting tons of requests and our team has been building hundreds of new WisdomCards.

Here's an example of a few WisdomCards recently published:

• Fibromyalgia
• Herpes
• Lung Cancer
• Dr. Alan Greene

If you don't find what you are looking for, just send an email with the health topic and our team will get right on it for you.

Hanging a 'For Sale' sign on the health news

image courtesy Paul Cleghorn

I used to work in local TV, and I know the pressures on today's local stations. You've got the advertisers clamoring for favorable stories, the business office pushing to cut staff, the staff complaining because there isn't any budget to repair their outdated equipment ... and oh yeah, the Internet stealing the audience.

In that environment, it might be easy to succumb to the temptation to sell out. So I could understand what tempted a station in Wisconsin to make a deal selling the health portion of its newscast to a local hospital. Instead of reporting news to meet their audience's needs, the station committed to featuring one hospital's doctors, programs and facilities, and eliminate all mention of that hospital's competitors. The sellout prompted the station's news director, Glenn Mabie, to quit in protest.

Unfortunately, there aren't many Glenn Mabies in this world, and far too many stations are selling out their health reports. The thing is, audiences aren't stupid. They know the difference between news and puff pieces. And increasingly, they're getting their health information online. That's one reason I'm not in TV anymore -- and one reason I'm proud to be the editor of OrganizedWisdom, a reliable health resource.
  

1 in 3 Americans uses social media for health

That's the conclusion of a new report from iCrossing, as summarized in Jane Sarasohn-Kahn's excellent Health Populi. Among the findings:

• 1 in 5 searchers chose Wikipedia.
• People want information they can use -- ratings, reviews, facts and figures.
• Patient advocates are in demand -- who better to tell you what it's really like to live with a condition than someone who's been living with it?

Jane then mentions OrganizedWisdom (thank you) among the sites that are forging the way in this area. I particularly like her conclusion:

There are already a cadre of influential health bloggers and social media mavens who are the Patient Opinion Leaders in their disease areas -- whether cancer, diabetes, MS, mental health, HIV, and a long list of other chronic conditions. Just as pharma companies recognize and reward Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) for their knowledge of patients and prescriptions, the Consumer Opinion Leader (COL) will become influential for both other consumers and, increasingly, stakeholders like health plans and pharma companies.

What do you look for when you search for health information online? Is there any particular "patient opinion leader" who stands out for you?

Healthcare '08

We all may be getting tired of the endless debates and media coverage for the upcoming presidential nominations, but in our opinion there still hasn't been nearly enough discussion about health care policy given the importance these issues have on the daily lives of so many American families.

Our friends at HealthCentral.com have just launched a great new tool that outlines each of the candidates' positions, and lets you see how they rate relative to your own thoughts on the issues.  They also have some of their expert bloggers participating. I guess it will be up to us bloggers and Health 2.0 companies to make sure this issue stays front and center...

Go to www.healthcare08central.com to see where your favorite candidates stand.

Speaking at Health 2.0 North East and 7th Annual ePharma Summit

Connecting online is great, but if you happen to be attending one of these events, we'd love to meet you in person to speak about Health 2.0, trends in health care, and how we may be able to work together to keep improving the health care system.

We're looking forward to speaking at several upcoming conferences...we'll continue to post our schedule as it fills up:

Steven Krein will speak on a panel discussion at the upcoming Health 2.0 NorthEast networking event in Boston, on January 23.  Matthew Holt will keynote the event, and Indu Subaiya mentioned she would also be in attendance.  (I am hoping to attend as well along with our Editor, Pat Washburn).

Later this month, I'll be speaking at the 7th Annual ePharma Summit in Philadelphia, PA on January 30th.  The  panel, Social Media, Blogs and User Generated Content: What's Working Today, What Will Work Tomorrow?, will be moderated by Bob Harrell, Director, eMarketing, SHIRE PHARMACEUTICALS.

Panelists include Jack Barrette, CEO, MOVINGHEALTH; Brad Aronson, Executive Vice President, aQUANTIVE, parent company of AVENUE A|RAZORFISH; Melissa Davies, Research Director, Healthcare Practice, NIELSEN BUZZMETRICS; Daniel Palestrant, MD, CEO, SERMO; Kevin Nalty, Consumer-Generated Media Expert, Formerly with J&J and Unity Stokes, Co-Founder and President, ORGANIZED WISDOM.

If we don't see you at one of these events, feel free to follow our OrganizedWisdom Twitter feed and we will keep you updated with our posts.

Fibromyalgia WisdomCard: What is it?

A new drug, Lyrica, has been approved for fibromyalgia -- a disease some doctors don't even think exists. (See New York Times story.) Chances are you know someone with fibro. Find out more about its mysteries -- what it is, how it's treated -- with the quality resources listed on the Fibromyalgia WisdomCard.

Type 2 Diabetes WisdomCard: You decide

A lot of people think they have the answers to Type 2 Diabetes. For most people with the disease, there's no one right answer, though it's pretty clear that exercising and staying away from junk food are good ideas. OrganizedWisdom has a WisdomCard on Type 2 Diabetes that offers high-quality, physician-reviewed health resources to help you explore your options.

Statins WisdomCard: No substitute for a healthy lifestyle

There's no truth to the rumor that you can lower your cholesterol by looking at the Statins WisdomCard. However, you can find the best resources to help you understand these cholesterol-lowering drugs and learn more about combining lifestyle changes with medication to lower your risk of a heart attack. If you or someone you know has diabetes, reading up on these drugs may be particularly useful in light of today's news recommending statins for diabetics.