#HealthXPh: A Series of Fortunate Events

This is how I remember it started …

I followed Denise Silber @health20Paris on Twitter. That wouldn’t have happened had I not been more active on Twitter lately thanks to the #hcldr tweet chat that Dr. Gia Sison (@giasison) had hooked me up with.

I posted on Facebook that I wished I could attend http://www.doctors20.com/ in Paris. Dr. Remo Aguilar (@bonedoc) told me why not have our own Philippine conference? We promised to brainstorm the idea over the holiday break.

A week later, Remo posted on how to become a Google Hangouts hotshot http://www.copyblogger.com/google-hangouts-hotshot. What followed was a flurry of posts from me, Gia and Remo which spilled over to Twitter. And then the hashtag was born … #HealthXPh. Remo registered it on Symplur and we were on our way.

This post is to document that we held our first Google Hangout on Air today – Gia, Remo, Dr. Narciso Tapia (@cebumd) and me! Remo has done a good job describing what #HealthXPh is envisioned to be at http://remomd.com/social-media/what-is-healthxph.html. Let me quote a part of it here:

• It’s a collaborative effort of healthcare stakeholders- healthcare professionals, institutions, academe, patients and policy makers.
• It will discuss, use and continually push the boundaries of social media and other emerging technologies in healthcare to impact the Philippine health landscape.
• It aims to educate all the healthcare stakeholders.
• It encourages collaboration and application of emerging technologies to improve delivery of  healthcare.
• It is open and free to all the stakeholders.
• Social media is going to impact Philippine healthcare. #HealthXPh want to make it a positive one.
• Social media opens new possibilities to participatory medicine practice in the Philippines. #HealthXPh is taking advantage of that.
• Social media and other emerging technology is making it easier for patients to access their healthcare professionals, institutions and policy makers. #HealthXPh will give insights on how to effectively manage this upsurge.

This definitely resonates with what I’ve been trying to do! I started slowly online. In 2008, I bought my own domain (Google Sites) with Google Apps (which was still free then) at endocrine-witch.info. What did I have there? Just my clinic schedule and a link to my SlideShare account where I housed my lecture presentations.

I only started talking about Web 2.0 and Medicine two years ago, when I also began exploring the intersection of Social Media and Medicine. In that presentation, I began interestingly enough by discussing the impact of social media on medicine, moved on to using social media as a platform for patient engagement but ended on a cautionary note with caveats and pitfalls. I’m more embracing of social media in healthcare nowadays. And I realize that given the chance, I would not have used this title (which conference organizers had given me) for a presentation “The Informatics Client: Dealing with Patients who Surf the Net” I did at the 2011 Philippine College of Physicians annual convention. I have after all since then, met many such ePatients at my clinic and on Twitter.

I moved deeper into social media when I started this blog. It has had several reincarnations (it used to be “Bubbles from My Cauldron” when I started in 2010). I blogged intermittently. So far, the highlight of my blogging experience was when I became an official blogger at the 2013 Endocrine Society convention in San Francisco.

I started on Twitter in 2010 as an assignment for an informatics class. I was asked to live tweet the Endocrine Society convention as I was going to be absent from class to attend the convention. Subsequently, I was more of a lurker until I got to read Twitterville: How Businesses can Thrive in the New Global Neighborhoods. I started following more people on Twitter. And I remember it was after the Philippine College of Physicians annual convention when I started following Dr. Gia Sison (@giasison). And the rest is as they say, is history 🙂

About a year ago, I put up my Facebook page Endocrine Witch. It’s my attempt to reach out to patients, an experiment in health promotion using social media. I realized in my presentation on the use of internet for health promotion that it was time to add my voice!

This is MY series of fortunate events leading up to #HealthXPh. How about you?

How did doctors use social media in 2013? Check out this infographic. I wish there were data from the Philippines. Maybe there will be, in 2014 with #HealthXPh! Come join us!

Here’s how –

1. Join the Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/HealthXPh/

2. Join the Google Hangout every Saturday 10 am starting January 4, 2014.

3. Join the Twitter chat #HealthXPh which we will try to hold simultaneously with the Google Hangout.

4. Join the #HealthXPh Google+ community.