Sites like PatientsLikeMe, provide a platform on which anyone can share their experiences coping with a medical condition – from their symptoms, to the treatments they use to the medications they are taking. It provides a methodical way to gather the endless anecdotal stories that exist and to start giving that priceless data shape – -to identify new trends, new ideas and to empower not only patients but the average physician as well.

Today, when a doctor prescribes a medication, the typical patient looks it up online. And the search engine results are no longer only for websites run by the drug manufacturer or other marketing oriented sites. It goes beyond Wikipedia and beyond scientific articles that a patient may have trouble understanding and takes them right into the actual experiences being had by tens, hundreds and even thousands of other patients using that medication.

Sites like Sermo, specific to US physicians, have grown to over 100,000 members – physicians sharing information in an informal, online setting. Patients are using applications that allow them to upload their calorie intake, their blood sugar levels, their blood pressure.It’s endless and it is growing.

The healthcare industry is a bit of a panic about all these developments – from hospitals to pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers, there is an understanding of the need to be out there, actively connecting to patients, but there is an understandable fear — fear of the regulatory issues, fear of screwing up, fear of negative exposure. But with that, more and more companies are recognizing that 1. They no longer have a choice, because if they don’t control their own social media presence to some degree, they are still going to be out there; and 2. Done right, they can leverage social media to their benefit in incredible ways that it would be a crime to ignore.

We are seeing more and more medical companies in Israel waking up and exploring how they can leverage these trends. There is a big learning curve, lots of fear, some suspicion . . . but the potential benefits are tremendous. Now it is still early but social media marketing in the medical field is rapidly taking off and quickly becoming a must in the marketing mix of any company that wants to succeed.

Take new initiatives like the website PatientsLikeMe, a platform on which patients can share information about their medical conditions and treatments. The site has already compiled a wealth of anecdotal information, patient by patient, and consolidated it into a useful interface with statistical analysis and personal insights. When prescribed a new medicine or seeking alternate treatments to a medical condition, who would not want to have access to such a wealth of data about other people’s experiences with those very same treatments?

Sites like PatientsLikeMe take social media in medicine several steps further. Already in 2006, the Pew Research Center reported that 80% of American Internet users reported using the Internet for health related search. It’s practically rare for someone not to go online to research a newly prescribed medication or suspected diseases they may have. For years, people have been joining forums and email groups and sharing personal details of their medical conditions. With social media, there is an even greater amount of information being shared and in public. And not surprisingly, sites like PatientsLikeMe are finding how to leverage the mental shift among patients and are methodically collecting the data being shared willingly to produce something scientific and useful, beyond a few anecdotal comments on a forum.

Add to this the US government’s plans to digitize medical records by 2014, and sharing medical information is likely to become commonplace and a powerful motivator for healthcare change in the very near future.
Of course many questions will be raised and many problems will have to be handled, but we believe the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages and we are set for some exciting developments. The empowerment of patients to participate more in their care and to have a direct pipeline to communicate with those developing the pharmaceuticals and treatments can have a significant impact on the healthcare industry. Just consider how many patients today, walk into their physician’s office armed with knowledge of their treatment options and with information about how patients, just like them, have responded to those treatments. They become their own advocates for attaining the best available healthcare and play a role in educating their doctors.
We are only at the tip of the iceberg right now. Stay tuned.

And now, Lee and Mayo are launching The Social Media Health Network, a service of the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media. The Network will provide access to tools, resources and guidance for organizations and individuals that want to apply social media in health and health care.

I admire Lee because he carved out a niche for himself and is probably now one of THE experts in healthcare social media. That is no small thing and the healthcare industry is still in its social media infancy. For most companies and caregivers, their social media presence has not even been born yet. So it is natural that many are looking to Lee to set the standard.

Lee Aase recognized something very simple and very powerful just a few years ago. When patients have a good experience at Mayo, they tell others. in fact, he found that over 90% of patients that had a good experience were telling others about it. And they don’t just tell one or two people. On average, they tell 40 other people about their experience and many advise others to go to Mayo themselves for treatment.

Today, over 33,000 people “like” the Mayo Clinic on Facebook. Take a look at the page and read some random comments left on the wall. Past patients share photos of themselves living healthy lives, thank you notes to the staff, comments on Mayo Clinic related publications, etc. It’s impressive.

Funnily enough, I found out about Lee through a YouTube video that had quickly accumulated over 7 million views within a few weeks last year. It was a video filmed by a Mayo clinic patient in the lobby – an older couple playing an adorable piano duet together. The video was written about in major news publications across the US and brought incredible exposure to the Clinic in a way that no planned campaign could ever do, with the couple even getting a spot on Good Morning America. It was completely spontaneous and emotional. Lee simply leveraged it well. Over 1 million views of the video came via the Sharing Mayo Clinic site. You can not buy that type of exposure!

Another technique that Lee is using is to reach out to patients and to make it really easy for them to share their stories – via text, pictures, video, etc. On the Mayo Clinic site, via Facebook, Twitter . . . The Sharing Mayo Clinic website (http://sharing.mayoclinic.org/share-your-mayo-clinic-story/) provides a platform for patients and Mayo Clinic staff to share their stories. Check out the guidelines provided for patients who want to share:

You can upload a video to YouTube and let us know about it by email.

If you’re on one of the Mayo Clinic campuses we may be able to meet you to record your story on video. When you’re on campus, call and ask for the Sharing Mayo Clinic team, and we’ll try to schedule a time that works with your appointments. Call from any campus phone.

If you would like to schedule a time to video tape your story in advance of your visit, you also can send us an email with your availability.

Yahoo, Bing and even the Chinese search engine Baidu, as well as other smaller search system, mobile devices and mapping quarries, all need to play an active roll when relevant in your SEO efforts. The rise of total searches done in these often SEO neglected search engines, present an opportunity in gaining visibility by optimizing and advertising of businesses on these frontiers.