Book Alert: Bringing the Social Media Revolution to Health Care

Your ability to recognize this happy man will depend on from whence you hail in my life.

If you're involved with health care social media, you'll know this is my friend, colleague and sometimes boss-of-me, Lee Aase, Director of the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media (MCCSM).

Why is he smiling? Well, Lee has the amazing ability to almost always be smiling. In this instance, it's  because he's holding a finished copy of Bringing the Social Media Revolution to Health Care.  

For this project, Lee was the publisher and I was the editor, which is why a picture of me holding the book would have featured me smiling while gently applying acupressure to my neck.

All not kidding aside, I also wrote a couple of essays, one about the importance of thinking more sociologically and another about Pinterest and the value of art for healing body, mind, and spirit. I'm particularly proud of the latter essay, originally written for the MCCSM blog. You can read it on the Mayo site here.

Bringing the Social Media Revolution to Health Care includes essays from 30 thought leaders who generously share their practical, experience-based wisdom about the strategy and practice of social media. You can learn more about the book and its contents by reading this post, which includes a fantastic (and brief!) video with Farris Timimi, M.D., Medical Director of MCCSM.

And while this book is focused on social media strategies and tactics for healthcare, I believe anyone involved with social media will find lots of interest and value in it. Yes, I'm looking at you, church social media (#chsocm) folks!

Note: All net proceeds go to fund scholarships for patients and caregivers to attend MCCSM conferences.

About the Skimpy Posting

Well, I hope you're enjoying my Go Fish series, cleverly scheduled for Fridays during Lent. I'm enjoying searching for and posting the images.

Am I ever going back to written posts? Of course! In fact, I've been writing lots of 'em -- for other blogs. Here are some you might find interesting:

• On The Virtual Abbey blog, Due for a Change or Maybe Complete Transformation, is about what's happening with our beloved virtual community.

• On the ChSocM (church social media) blog, Virtual Community & Social Media: It Takes a (Global) Village and What Else? poses some critical questions about whether additional or different community-development skills are needed for online communities. 

• On the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media blog, Pinterest for Health is a Beautiful Thing . . . Literally, suggests that art has value for healing body, mind, and spirit.

• On dotMagis, the blog of Ignatian Spirituality, I'm three questions into a blog-alogue with Jim Manney  about using social media. The most recent one, about what Ignatius would have done with social media, was thought-provoking fun to answer.

• On Lent Madness, I've advocated for several saints and one of them, Mary Magdalene, has made it to the Elate Eight. I'm especially happy with the post I wrote that helped her trounce Joan of Arc.

So, yes, I've been writing! I've also been preparing for upcoming presentations and workshops. I'm thrilled that church social media is finally becoming worthy of attention by church leadership and delighted that I get to continue my adventures in healthcare social media. 

I'm scheduled to talk about and train folks about social media during these events:

• Archdeacons & Formation Directors Conference (Association for Episcopal Deacons) in Baltimore, MD on March 23.
• Social Media Residency Program (Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media) in Jacksonville, FL on March 28-29.
• Conference on Diocesan Executives (CODE) in Annapolis, MD on April 20.
• ELCA Southwestern Synod Assembly in Vancouver, WA on May 19 -- preceded by a week of consulting with a group of Seattle-based clergy and lay leadership.
• Baltimore Nonprofit Leaders Circles Annual Forum in Baltimore, MD on June 20.

Meanwhile, Go Fish . . . on Fridays!

Off to the Mayo Clinic!

I'm leaving on Sunday, October 16 for the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MinneSOta. No, not for a physical exam as per my Bridal Registry request.

I'll be there for a week attending the Social Media Summit, followed by meetings for members of the Social Media Health Network. (I serve on the External Advisory Board for the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media.)  Those meetings run through Thursday noon.

Mayo Clinic's very first Social Media Residency Program begins at 12:30 on Thursday and concludes Friday afternoon. Based on the medical residency model, this Social Media Residency is an intense 15-hour mix of didactic, small group and hands-on teaching for which participants will receive CME credits. I'm one of the instructors and Chief Residents responsible for rounding with a group of social media residents. I've also spent the past month or so helping to create and finalize the curriculum and textbook.

God willing, my plane will actually land at BWI on midnight, Friday, October 21. I will then have approximately 13 days to recuperate before swinging into wedding mode.

Did I know about this timeline in advance? Yes, I did.  Did I think through any possible body/mind/spirit consequences of this timeline? No, I did not. Has anyone characterized this or me as "crazy" or "insane"? Yes, several people have already done so.

Meet my new patron saint:

St. Christina the Astonishing

Health Faith | Making the Connection Sacred

See this delightful image? I'm using it as the avatar for my new Twitter account: @HealthFaith. You'll also find it on my new blog: Health Faith | Making the Connection Sacred.

Really and truly this project should come as no surprise — unless you do not know I've spent more than two decades writing for and about the health and healthcare industry.* I go on about this in more detail at my website.

For professional and personal reasons, I'm also keen on what's going on within the empowered patient or participatory medicine movement. This movement is made up of patients, caregivers and  physicians committed to the audacious notion that wellness and healthcare delivery must be a cooperative, collaborative process.

I also believe spiritual life is a key component of health and wellness. I'm not alone in recognizing  a sacred connection between health and faith. But as I mention in the first post on that blog, people in the healthcare industry are reluctant to talk about this connection. Not I, of course. Maybe not you either?

* Surely you did not think writing books paid the mortgage or, now, rent!

Christian Love Abiding. Not.

Which do I find more distressing, the various and sundry news releases generated by the United States Catholic Bishops? Online reportage about that news? Commentary posted by the so-called People of God? Forced to choose, I'd have to go with being disturbed by the continuing lack of civility. (Has The Catholic Civility Project folded?)

If you think I'm making this up, then please put on virtual HAZMAT gear and wade through what's posted in response to David Gibson's recent column at Politics Daily. Or don't. The title of his piece is, "New Catholic Sex Abuse Findings: Gay Priests Are Not the Problem," so it should be easy to imagine the range of comments. (By the way, ever notice how hatemongers stink at spelling? I hate that.)

So where, exactly, did Jesus command us to hate one another? Those of us who claim to be Christian really do need to stop behaving as if John 15:9-12 reads like this:

"As the Father has hated me, so I have hated you; abide in my hate. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my hate, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his hate.

I have said these things to you so that my anger may be in you, and that your anger may be complete. 'This is my commandment, that you hate one another as I have hated you.'"

My Wonder Woman Weekend

The virtual world, Second Life, has been around for a couple of years which, in Internet terms, makes it old news and ancient history. Nevertheless, Second Life recently popped up on my personal radar. I have Twitter to thank for that.

More specifically, my thanks go to a group of gal pals active in Twitter's healthcare social media community and a New Zealand-based Anglican priest. My gals pals decided we ought to change our avatars to images of Wonder Woman for a weekend. Fr. Bosco Peters tweeted a link to his post about virtual sacraments.

I loved my weekend as Wonder Woman. Judging from tweets about using magic bracelets to ward off ridiculous demands for ROI measurements, so did everyone else. Dealing with the healthcare industry seemed so much easier in that persona, thus providing a glimpse of what might motivate anyone's participation in Second Life. Maybe it would be easier to work in healthcare communications over there? And, gee, what would participating in church community be like?

This kicker from Fr. Peters' post, "Virtual Eucharist: Can sacraments work in the virtual world?" has further piqued my curiosity about such possibilities:

"What we need is not a parodying in the virtual world of that which is particular to Real Life -- we need to discern appropriate ways of mission and ministry in and through the virtual world that may very well be significantly different to what we can do in the Real World. It is that which is its blessing and its challenge."

While, I'm not rushing to create a Second Life, I do find myself pondering how to make imagination, creativity, and innovation more possible in this one. I'm also wondering why, after I'd restored my usual head shot after my weekend as Wonder Woman, someone on Twitter asked, "Are you a nun? Or just a devout woman?"