Inside the Health Blogosphere: Governance, Quality and the New Opinion Leaders [4 Aud 1100 Seeman]

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Seeman, N.Inside the Health Blogosphere: Governance, Quality and the New Opinion Leaders

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© Copyright IBM Corporation 2008

Inside the Health Blogosphere:Governance, Quality

and the New Opinion Leaders

Neil Seeman, JD, MPH

IBM Health Care & Ryerson University

Medicine 2.0 Congress, Sept. 4, 2008

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What is an “Opinion Leader”?

Think of a person who is an “opinion leader”.

● Opinionated?● Annointed by Status?● Track record of success?● Trust? ● Likeability?● Creativity?● Ability to spot trends?

3 © Copyright IBM Corporation 2008

Sept. 4, 2008 Presentation to Medicine 2.0 Congress, Toronto, Canada

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SNA proves that “opinion leaders” do not always enjoy status or hierarchical authority

Source: Cross, R., Parker, A., Prusak, L. & Borgatti, S.P. 2001. Knowing What We Know: Supporting Knowledge Creation and Sharing in Social Networks. Organizational Dynamics 30(2): 100-120.

4 © Copyright IBM Corporation 2008


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On social networks, “opinion leaders” are everyday people writing about health problems

Source: Adapted from, Seeman N, Electronic Healthcare, 2008

10Alcohol Dependency

9Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

8Chronic Pain

7Chronic Fatigue

6Obesity

5Diabetes

4Autism

3Cancer

2Bipolar Illness

1Depression

Rank among Chronic Illness Communities

Focus

Based on N=100, MySpace.com

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Among physicians, there are also nodes. Blogs are tools to lead opinion.

Source: Valdis Krebs, http://www.orgnet.com/KOL.html

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What attributes do leading health blogs share?

Run by subject matter experts (SMEs)?

Discuss health news that matters?

Protect user privacy?

Highly used?

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For patients: benefits of health blogs

Navigate the continuum of care

Empowerment

Share challenges and solutions

Knowledge of treatments and medications

Single access point


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For health professionals: benefits

Intellectual capital

Collaboration

Understanding patient needs

Protocols to support clinical treatment


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For hospitals and health regions: benefits

Client health literacy

Philanthropy and volunteer recruitment

Patient self-care, goal-setting

Research and educational activity


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The blogosphere is expanding rapidly…

Source: Technorati, 2006

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…with blogs pushing the information frontier

8% (12 million) adult users of Internet in the US keep a blog; 39% (57) million read one - 2006, Pew Internet and American Life Project

Blogs contributed to increase of ~ 50 million new websites in 2007 - 2007, Netcraft Web Server Survey

Blogs are increasingly “breaking news stories”

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The influence of newspapers is in decline

0.05-9.85United Kingdom

-1.34-2.23Sweden

-0.94-1.73Spain

19.44 NASlovenia

-4.17-8.55Slovakia

-3.88 NAPortugal

9.8021.63Poland

-3.67-10.58Netherlands, The

-2.251.46Latvia

0.03-5.25Italy

2.1628.91Ireland

-0.68-12.31Hungary

-4.05-11.62Greece

-2.5-9.63Germany

-1.6-7.38France

-0.67-2.99Finland

-0.39-0.78Estonia

-2.64-11.4Denmark

4.880.87Czech Republic

-1.35-4.25Belgium

0.420.09Austria

2005/2004%2005/2001%Country

14 out of 21 EU countries saw newspaper circulationdecline in 2005. 16 out of 20 EU countriessaw newspaper circulationdecline from 2001-2005.

Source: World Association of Newspapers

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But do health blogs provide important news? … are they safe? …

are they well-governed?

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Analyzing health blog quality and governance

Using a literature review, identify key features of a well-governed blog capable of systematic review

Calculation of a “blog governance score” out of 20 based on review of governance features

Statistical cross-tabulations and correlations run to test observations of blog characteristics

Comparative analyses of popular health blogs to general-interest newspapers

Aggregation of most visible and prevalent health blogs using multiple methodologies/ rankings

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High density health blogs

11. Awful Plastic Surgery

12. Running a Hospital

13. Pharma Marketing Blog

14. Emergiblog

15. Polite Dissent

10. World of Psychology and Mental Health

9. Junkfood Science

8. NHS Blog Doctor

7. The Health Care Blog

6. Diabetesmine.com

5. Kevin M.D. Medical Blog

4. Sharpbrains.com

3. Wall Street Journal Health Blog

2. Medgadget.com

1. BadScience.net

15 Top Health Blogs in the Web (March, 2008)

*Source Data: Bloglines, Google, Technorati. Aggregation of scores compiled by author (at March 10, 2008). N=100

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Old media vs. health blogs: Which are better?

“Reporters who are trained … provide the news stories, and the news sites gather them up and the bloggers comment on them.”

- R. Smith, The Globe and Mail, March 27, 2008

“Blogging has in the past couple of years exploded into a cottage industry churning out increasingly compelling content.”

- The Economist, “Weblogging,” March 27, 2008

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Do blogs discuss important medical news?

Parkinson's Disease Drugs Linked to Valvular Dysfunction

Fish Oil Added to Statin Therapy Reduces Risk for Major Coronary Events

NSAIDs for Heart Disease Patients

Rosiglitazone (Avandia) Increases MI and CV Death in Meta-Analysis

Immunization schedule change recommendations for children/ adults

New approach to Tdap Vaccine for Adults

New guidelines for venuous thromboembolism diagnosis

New guidelines for treatment of acute ischemic stroke

Soft Drink Consumption linked to increased metabolic risk

New Guidelines for the Management of Lower Back Pain

10 Most Important Medical News Stories of 2007*

* As so defined by a conensus of more than 60 leading clinical experts across North America, compiled by Medscape and WebMD. Available at:http://www.webmd.com/news/20071214/top-10-doc-stories-2007

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Niche and focus may drive higher loyalty and use

SME monitoring is strongly linked to good blog governance

Health blogs can and should do a better job in promoting user privacy and SME monitoring

Conclusions

http://flickr.com/photos/southernbreeze/87262509/

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Discussion

For further information, please contact: [email protected]

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Inside the Health Blogosphere: Governance, Quality and the New Opinion Leaders [4 Aud 1100 Seeman]

Health & Medicine