Digital Pharma: UK healthcare Twitter group is launched
pharmafile | March 16, 2011 | News story | Medical Communications | Digital Pharma blog, Twitter, hcsmeu, hcsmuk
A new Twitter group is launched today to provide a forum for discussing social media and its impact on healthcare in the UK.
Health Care Social Media UK, or #hcsmuk, is a local branch of the popular Health Care Social Media Europe group and has been set up by Janssen’s EMEA marketing communications manager Alex Butler.
“When you look at the UK we have an incredibly complex, passionate and dynamic healthcare landscape. At the core of this is the NHS, but there are numerous groups and stakeholders who have a really important voice regarding healthcare delivery,” he said.
“I have set up the #hcsmuk group to try and harness all of this knowledge and interest to form a UK community that can begin to drive real change in the way social media is utilised for healthcare in the UK. This goes much deeper than the latest Facebook community, but cuts to the heart of massive issues such as participatory medicine and patient-reported outcomes. On an individual level it can give people a voice and a real sense of ownership in their own healthcare.”
Although a pharma company employee himself, Alex stresses it’s not a pharma initiative and open to anyone who wants to take part.
“It is important to say that I am setting up this group as an individual and Janssen are in no way involved. Obviously I have made people within the company aware of it, but there is no conflict and there were no reservations.
“I look after the corporate twitter account for Janssen, but have a very active Twitter account of my own with a reach way beyond that of the Janssen account. I do think we can represent the stakeholder groups we live in as individuals. This should also be the case for people taking part from the NHS, academia, patient advocacy, etc.”
The group will use the hash-tag #hcsmuk and meet on the third Wednesday of each month, starting today at 12.30pm.
Hash-tag groups are a popular way of following a conversation on Twitter and Health Care Social Media UK joins a growing number of health-focused groups, details of which are catalogued by Fox ePractice’s Healthcare Hashtags project.
To follow the new UK group’s conversation, people need only to search Twitter for #hcsmuk, and then include these characters in a tweet to make their voice heard. “The great thing for me about the concept of a Twitter-based community is that it is built by people’s participation not by the construction of digital assets,” Alex said.
Topics for discussion can be added to an online document, with the inaugural session set to focus on the PMCPA and social media, pharma-NHS collaboration on patient self-management and the impact of the iPad on UK doctors’ clinical practice.
Health Care Social Media UK is the latest local offshoot of the popular Health Care Social Media Europe group (#hcsmeu), which has met weekly since August 2009 – when it was the topic of the first Digital Pharma blog post.
“I have been involved in the #hcsmeu community for a while and have found the regular discussion every Friday to be enjoyable, challenging, educational and often inspiring. I feel that the ethos at the core of the movement is the most important thing for me,” Alex said.
“There has developed an underlying sentiment and set of beliefs that have informed my utilisation of social media in my own work. Once this passion for patient-centred communications, transparency and dialogue has been developed, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to go back to some of the old practices with regard to patient and public engagement.”
• Health Care Social Media UK will meet on the third Wednesday of every month, 12.30 – 1.30pm (GMT). Discussion topics can be viewed here and a LinkedIn group has been set up. For further information on #hcsmuk contact @hcsmuk or @Alex__Butler on Twitter.
Dominic Tyer is web editor for Pharmafocus and InPharm.com and the author of the Digital Pharma blog He can be contacted via email, Twitter or LinkedIn.
Related Content
Twitter launches new initiative to direct users towards credible information on vaccines
Twitter will now present users with a pinned tweet directing them towards reliable information on …
US House of Representatives blocks drug pricing advert bill
A ruling which would force pharmaceutical companies to disclose the price of their drugs in …
Merck joins Pizer and Novartis in reducing drug prices
Merck & Co. have joined Pfizer and Novartis in halting price increases on medicines in …
