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Its a tricky topic, one that sparks off a debate fueled by passionate emotions and virulent opinions. Healthcare reform is a hot topic.

Regardless of one’s feelings about the topic, there is a lot to admire about how President Obama and the White House communicate and garner support for their program. In fact, it is a perfect model for how healthcare organizations can join the conversation.

Today, the White House hosted a live internet town hall event.  The President made his pitch and answered questions from constituents. While the use of internet streaming video is an admirable step, it is not what made this event so remarkable.

Several weeks before the town hall meeting, the White House invited the American public to submit questions via FaceBook and YouTube. During the live event, the President addressed some of those questions (including some from Twitter). Understandably the vast majority of the questions went unanswered, but that is where the two-way internet kicks in. What the White House has done is to get people talking directly to people. No pundits, no news anchors with an agenda, no editorial commentary and faux news channels telling people what to think… The White House is tapping into the passions and energy of the public at large. It is grass roots done internet style.

During the town hall, which was co-hosted on FaceBook, there was a live scrolling chat of people posting comments while they viewed the event. That takes courage. Most of FaceBook’s users are younger and statistically many are the uninsured (or under insured) that stand to benefit from healthcare reform. This is an energetic group that is open to sharing exactly what is on their minds, even if it is counter to the President’s plan. It sends a message: The White House is comfortable with ideas that run counter to their own, maybe even open to them. That means more people will participate in the conversation. Its a powerful way to grow an audience – who’d have thought, being inclusive really works.

What can Healthcare organizations learn from this event? For starters, it is a fairly transparent and portable idea. Copy it. Host your own town hall events internally and externally. Invite your employees and patients and physicians to submit video questions before the event and to participate via social sites during the show. Encourage  people ask the hard questions – “what do we for charity care?” “How are we improving our communities?” “What can we do better and what do we do really well right now?”
If healthcare organizations want to have a voice in the discussion, they need to follow the lead of the White House.

Thanks to Tom Stitt for the insightful brainstorming on this topic.
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By the way – there was a nice but subtle reference to Atul Gawande’s article in the New Yorker which you can find here.

If you don’t know Gwande’s work, check out his book Better:

Ed Bennett of healthcare social media fame, has shared a compelling slide deck on the topic.
A few weeks ago I posted a similar presentation from Lee Aase. It is exciting to see so many thought leaders sharing their ideas on the future of healthcare communications.

Please note: you can find the original post here on Ed’s site

This post has a permanent home – please use this page for any bookmarks and future updates

This document was written to convey the low cost, and high impact nature of social media adoption within a non-profit healthcare organization. The majority of this document is unchanged from the original version which was presented to the leadership of a large, faith-based health system.
It is the intention of the author that the publication of this document will help other non-profit health systems realize the benefits of social media within their organizations. It is also the goal of this publication to assist leaders within skeptical organizations to address concerns about the use of social media.

excerpts:
A revolution is taking place in the way people communicate with friends, companies, employers and professionals. Known popularly as “social media” or “social networking”, individuals and businesses are using internet communities to connect with one another. The conversation is open, and candid with topics ranging from mundane to powerful stories. In The Clue Train Manifesto1, the authors contend: “A powerful global conversation has begun…” people are already discussing engagement, patient care and [our brand]. Social Media is about joining the conversations already in progress.

Healthcare is on the bandwagon. Successful industry leaders are using social networks to connect with patients, employees and physicians in a bi-directional way. This new communication comes with low costs and a word of mouth impact that goes beyond the one-way nature of traditional media.

“If AT&T offered you a free phone in the 1960s and said ‘here, reach your customers for free’, would you turn it down?” – Paul Levy, CEO Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital and author of www.runningahospital.com


Community Engagement by Nick Dawson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Originally uploaded by NickDawson

What a great weekend at Chez Foos on the Yorke River. Check Flickr for more pics.

One of the highlights was having Greg and Candy Dawson give us a private book signing for Hiding In the Spotlight. Greg and Candy shared their story of the genesus of the book, reconnecting with the Dawson clan and their whirlwind book tour around Virginia.

The FaceBook Land Grab of 2009 is on! you can find me at www.facebook.com/nick.dawson

The 2nd official Social Media Club of Richmond VA met recently. There has already been a lot written about the event. For the sake of those in attendance I will not pile on the information overload. For the sake of those who could not make it, please find a list of posts from others below.

For me the biggest take away was the legitimacy of social media. That is to say, when you gather with 200 other like minded people the theory yields to reality. I was left with a real confidence that we are right – this is the future of communication. In a way its like this generation’s version of the 1960s – a group of people gathered together with a genuine interest in a common good and changing the world.

It made me realize, there are two types of people in the world: Those who Twitter, <this space intentionally left blank>

Here are some of the great posts regarding the SMCRVA event (various viewpoints)

Jon’s PR 1.5- @jonnew

Read Write Web – @jolieodell

MattOnFire – @mattjh2

The Checkout Girl – @thecheckoutgirl

And, NBC news was there:

SMCRVA

by wdnixon

I am not a huge fan of the “personal brand” sentiments. Something about pushing yourself on people rubs me the wrong way.
That said, I do really like the idea of controlling your own identity online. After all, if you don’t own it, someone else will!

In the past I have used iWeb and .Mac to compile a list of all of my internet profiles. The challenge was remembering them all and keeping up with the static page. Google has recently introduced Profiles ( Google.com/profiles) where you can claim your identity across the net. It appears that the more your tell it, the smarter it gets. Start with creating a profile and linking to your homepage or twitter account. Pretty soon google starts finding other sites on the net that appear to belong to you – facebook, flickr, vimeo, etc. Additionally, when someone searches for your name, your google profile will appear at the bottom of the search results. That means the likelyhood of someone finding the real you is much higher.

Not only is Google Profiles a great way to control your presence online, it is a powerful aggrigrator of our online selves. Take a look at mine – www.google.com/profiles/nickpdawson and you’ll see what I mean. Things get even more fun when you use a vanity domain and point it to your profle. In my case, I have used NickDawson.ME which redirects to google profile. A profile and a .ME domain is an easy way to share your online contacts with anyone. Imagine creating a business card with nothing but your .ME address. “Want to reach me, here is a one stop shop”.

Four years ago my grandmother got a phone call. “Is this Grace Dawson?, the Grace Dawson?” Calling from Florida was a voice of a family member she had never met but was nonetheless inescapably tied to. Greg Dawson had set out to write the story of his mother and her sister – a story which had been partially told in our family for years. That version went as follows:

As young girls Zhanna and her sister Frina were separated from their Ukrainian Jewish parents during WWII. At the end of the war the two talented musicians who were discovered by a US government official, my grandfather, himself a devoted music lover. Larry Dawson helped arrange for them to travel to the United States. They were proceeded by only a letter to my grandmother. There was a lot of speculation about the trauma the two hand endured but few detailed had survived the years.

After living for a period with my Grandmother and her young children, both girls went on to attend the prestigious Julliard school of music in New York. Zhanna eventually married Larry’s brother.

Now the full heartfelt and moving story is being told;  how the girls were able to survive and how music played such an important role in their survival. Greg Dawson has published Hiding In The Spotlight. As a family we could not be more proud of this story and wish Greg much success.

Greg will be in Richmond Virginia, speaking at the Library of Virginia on Friday June 18th from 6:00pm – 7:00pm to speak about his book and the increadable story of Zhanna and Frina. Details can be found on Greg’s site here.

Wilson “Syke” Dansey (pronounced like Psych) looks seventy-five years old, and has done so for the more than ten years that I have known him. He is a distinguished older gentlemen who was always dressed impeccably, yet always with a youthful flare – a striped tie on a striped shirt, or bright bow tie with matching pocket square. I always imagined Syke hailing from England, although his accent is unmistakably Richmond. I met Syke when a college friend took me to the Richmond outpost of a Virginia-owned clothing store while we were still in school. At that time the nature of the game was anything that went with stained khakis and a navy blazer and could be worn to a dance or football game. Since then I have had the fortune to buy a lot of my clothing from Syke. On the times I was wayward and visited other clothiers, I would think: “well, Syke’s service would be better, but a deals a deal.” Besides helping me fit a suit or pick out a tie, I am not sure I have even given much thought to the impact this venerable clothing salesman had on my life.  A bittersweet reunion this week gave me pause to stop and consider just how impactful the people pass in and out of our lives can be.

I lost my tux shirt, or as I have since deduced, left it somewhere in Ireland… I think…maybe. Regardless, it and I parted ways and I needed something for a formal event last weekend. So on a warm evening last week I rolled the windows down and enjoyed the slow drive to the one place in town I was guaranteed to find some helpful advice. Syke was there, but rather than a daring pinstripe-meets-polkadot combination, he was looking rather “civilian”. It turns out that in this economy people are buying less clothing and even my old friends were not immune. We chatted and caught up. One of their other wonderfully attentive team members was as helpful as I could have asked; even pausing to remember the name to a face that had not visited the store in almost a year. But as soon as I started looking for a fun bow tie to go with the tux shirt, it was Syke that jumped to the cause. He responded as thought a retired Army officer might salute out of habit. Its in his blood; its not customer service, its doing what he loves to do, help people.

Almost five years to the month since I had worn that tux for the first time, I looked up and said “you know Syke, you sold me my tux for my wedding”. His response, “I know, but does it still fit?” his rye quip did not go unnoticed. I paid and hit the road and began to think about correlation between Syke and important events in my life.

Just before I graduated from college it became apparent that I needed something nice to interview in. I was (and still do enjoy) taking advice from my father, who came to look at the suit. His remarked: “I dont know why anyone would want a solid black suit, but the fit is perfect!”. Syke had fixed the break above the chest and the roll in the neck. Six months later I accepted my first job wearing that suit. Syke helped me select the dark conservative outfit for my grandmother’s funeral. I have sharp memories of deflecting grief over the concern about attire; a symbolic way of postponing saying goodbye. A few years, a few jobs and a few suits later, Syke helped pick the tuxedos for all of my groomsmen. We all showed up one evening, just about closing time for the fittings. My old friend took one look at our crew and ducked into the back of the store. He emerged a few moments later with two fists full of icy cold beers and a cheshire grin.

This is not a story with a sad ending. It is a story with an ending that has yet to be written. Syke Dansey will land on his feet. Beacroft & Bull still has the most attentive and professional staff that I know of. But there is a message here and it does not have to apply to healthcare or food, but life in general. There are people who will impact our lives without us even knowing. Sometimes its that waiter in a restaurant who made the meal memorable with out us even realizing. Its the nurse that brought the extra pillow at exactly the right time. Maybe if we all take a few moments to remember the people that we know briefly but that have a huge impact, then we can think about the fleeting interactions we have with others and how we might change their lives.