Helping out in Healthcare

I have been following a number of Healthcare sites in and around the internet, looking for examples or case studies of how social media are used.  In particular I wanted to find examples of social collaboration or communities that are focused on helping other members of society to better understand and contribute to the public wealth and health.

I attend #CPHC- Carpool Health Community, which has already garnered a strong and eager following, that meets weekly on a Tweetchat and has recently established a Google+ community to progress their ideas into actions and achievable care.  Furthering their mission they are about to launch their own web community site, where Communities of Practice (CoP) can focus around specific conditions, diseases, traumas and behaviors.  The biggest attraction of these CoPs is that community comprises more than just patients, it also contains experts from the medical side as well as members of families that have knowledge and experience of the specific topic.

Dr Steven Eisenberg is an Oncologist and he is one of the principal contributors on the Cancer Community of Practice.  His contributions to the Tweetchat are listed below.  Please feel free to engage with Dr Eisenberg through these embedded tweets, whether you need clarfication or simply want to extend the conversation or contribute to the value of his content.

He starts by defining is community of practice (CoP)

Cancer is a family disease. And I don’t mean just the patient’s family. #CPHC

— Dr. Steven Eisenberg (@drseisenberg) February 26, 2013

It’s the family of everyone who has ever had cancer, researched cancer or treated cancer. #CPHC — Dr. Steven Eisenberg (@drseisenberg) February 26, 2013

He believes that it is this comprehensive family that holds the key to increased knowledge, understanding, improved care even to the point of opening up new areas of research and discovery. When asked how this would be effected, Dr Eisenberg provided a 12 step guide to engagement, including a prologue for the journey that needs to be taken.

T2: Info goes in one ear and out the other in the office. we need a safe place to let the info marinate and sink in/process… #CPHC

— Dr. Steven Eisenberg (@drseisenberg) February 26, 2013

Step 1: Diagnosed then immediately get into your head and hard to hear anything else. #CPHC

— Dr. Steven Eisenberg (@drseisenberg) February 26, 2013

Step 2: Go to Carpool Health and start the process of healing…how? I’ll tell you. #CPHC

— Dr. Steven Eisenberg (@drseisenberg) February 26, 2013

Step 3: See that people are here, and sharing, and alive, and had the same exact thing as you. Docs love you here. #CPHC

— Dr. Steven Eisenberg (@drseisenberg) February 26, 2013

Step 4: You start to feel that there is hope/support/love/a carpool #CPHC

— Dr. Steven Eisenberg (@drseisenberg) February 26, 2013

Step 5: You feel that love/support/advocacy/family of care/you jump in the car/you tell me where you need to go today/we start driving #CPHC

— Dr. Steven Eisenberg (@drseisenberg) February 26, 2013

Step 6: We make our first stop – research with a side of compassion. #CPHC

— Dr. Steven Eisenberg (@drseisenberg) February 26, 2013

Step 7: We take a pit stop at the #7Cs diner (caring communication compassion connection collaboration creativity community)! #CPHC

— Dr. Steven Eisenberg (@drseisenberg) February 26, 2013

Step 8: Now, connected to a community founded on love and self-expression, you start to feel powerful in your own shoes #CPHC

— Dr. Steven Eisenberg (@drseisenberg) February 26, 2013

Step 9: You are now versed in connecting and contributing the FAMILY of people taking turns driving the CARPOOL #CPHC

— Dr. Steven Eisenberg (@drseisenberg) February 26, 2013

Step 10: You are starting 2 feel an inner sense of peace, of confidence, that I now have a safe place 2 go, to self-express, 2 learn #CPHC

— Dr. Steven Eisenberg (@drseisenberg) February 26, 2013

Step 11: The #7Cs are now a part of your soul – caring communication compassion connection collaboration creativity community – really #CPHC

— Dr. Steven Eisenberg (@drseisenberg) February 26, 2013

Step 12: You take a really nice cleansing deep breath and repeat steps 1 though 12. #CPHC

— Dr. Steven Eisenberg (@drseisenberg) February 26, 2013

The days of patients blindly following any doctor’s advice are over: we ALL should embrace sharing knowledge/evidence/decisions/strength #CPHC

— Dr. Steven Eisenberg (@drseisenberg) February 26, 2013

Please feel free to seek clarification on any of these steps directly with Dr Eisenberg, I am sure he will be more than delighted to help extend the discussion and bring further clarity to his vision and goals.

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