Since last fall, we’ve been talking about ways to improve health care by harnessing the collective intelligence of doctors, nurses and patients through social networking.
Seems this idea is catching on. See this latest story from MarketWatch.
The story is mostly about Jesse Dylan, who happens to be among those working with Cincinnati Children’s doctors on a collaborative network to help children (and eventually adults) with chronic health issues. It says, in part:
Lybba (pronounced LIB-a) represents a useful way to harness the power of Internet interactivity and social networking. Patrick McGovern, FreeForm executive project manager, points out that Lybba has accumulated more than 3,000 friends on Facebook and 10,000 followers on Twitter.
“We collect medical knowledge and combine that with social-networking tools to give specific answers to specific problems,” said David Fore, Lybba’s executive director. “We’re asking: ‘How can we take care of each other, now and in the future?'”
“Peter Margolis, a professor of pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, told me he approves of Lybba’s goal of “finding ways for patients, researchers and physicians to collaborate more effectively to improve care. I am intrigued with the idea of using the Internet to facilitate interactivity.”
Margolis is also impressed by Dylan. “What’s extremely intriguing about Jesse and his expertise in social media and communications is taking complex ideas and simplifying them. It’s an extremely rare gift and he’s incredibly good at it.”
Read more of our thoughts elsewhere in this blog … and then tell us what you think.