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  • How the Pandemic Gold Rush Is Remaking the Housing Market

    Through two long weeks I wandered, stumbling through the nights guided only by the stars and hiding during the days behind some protruding rock or among the occasional hills I traversed.
    For two days I waited there for Kantos Kan, but as he did not come I started off on foot in a northwesterly direction toward a point where he had told me lay the nearest waterway.

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  • Effective healthcare campaigns in changing digital media environment- From “You do it” to “Let’s do it!

    Vaccination and measles outbreak flooded our social media feeds recently. The sad news is we thought we eradicated measles decades ago. Measles however, only hogged the media limelight after an outbreak happened. “What went wrong with the measles campaign?” many asked. There’s no shortage of blaming on what many called “a failure” to counter an “avalanche of online misinformation” about vaccination and vaccines. Measles and vaccinations are just two of the many health campaigns that took centerstage after an “outbreak” happened. Heard of health supplements? Alternative cancer treatments? Dengue? Flu? Smoking? Vaping? Diabetes? Kidney diseases? We din’t notice until something alarming happened. We blame the new media and the people who use it for their own purposes-good or bad. Then we rush to using the same new media to counter such online misinformation. We fail and wonder. How come?

    First allow me to narrow the discussion to health campaigns on social media. Successful health campaigns are not solely because of an effective media strategy let alone a savvy social media leader. The whole caboodles of political, economic, logistical and support systems should be in place before we can even talk of launching it on social media. Having said that, and for the sake of our discussion, lets assume we all have those factors sorted out in place and we’re left with an effective social media campaign strategy to go with the health advocacy.

    In the past we had leaders adept in using media to implement effective healthcare campaigns. Think Dr. Juan Flavier and his much loved health news, radio and TV campaigns. He and his health campaigns were blockbusters, to his avid followers and critics alike. The charismatic secretary seemed to have mastered old media messaging and signalling and was very effective in mobilizing the crowd. He is interested in empowering the public, not himself nor his organization- a novel, laudable new media value. This cascading top to bottom healthcare campaign strategy worked for old media- newspapers, radio and TV. Will it work for the new media?

    T1. What old media health campaign strategies work in social media?

    Internet and social media showed much promise for advocacies and campaigns. Twitter had been instrumental in monitoring or reporting disease outbreaks for CDC and WHO. Healthcare organizations employed social media platforms to pressure health policy changes in some countries, and won. Social media campaigns played a huge part in the passage of Sin Tax Law and the Universal Healthcare Law in the Philippines. Incremental wins some may call it but a win nonetheless. Let’s not forget, the millions of money that poured in to health advocacy groups because of memes such as the “Ice bucket Challenge”. Why some organisations are successful in using social media to meet the objectives of their healthcare campaigns (and others, do not) remains a mystery to many.

    Internet and social media comprise the “new media”. Internet gatekeepers and social media platforms keep changing its policies, algorithm and strategies to achieve its bottomline- profit for its owners and shareholders. That’s not altogether bad given the social media platforms who succeeded in providing desirable value to the general public while maintaining a profitable and sustainable business model. That social media is hog washed in false information and dubious health messages is also not true. There’s no dearth of superior quality health information online according to Keselman (2019). Despite the presence of superior quality and credible online health information, some health campaigns failed to mobilize a hyperconnected populace. Why did it fail? Was it the messaging? Platform? Theme?

    T2. What are the reasons behind the failure of some health social media campaigns to mobilize the crowd and effect change?

    In their book New Power: How Power Works in Our Hyperconnected World- and How to Make It Work for You, Heimans and Timms (2018) placed leadership archetypes into a spectrum, a quadrant on how leadership structures (termed old/new power) use old/new power values to effect change.

    Leadership Archetypes in a quadrant with examples of leaders/organizations who best exemplifies each quadrant. Image from HBR article here https://hbr.org/2014/12/understanding-new-power

    Arguably, the top down, cascading model of social media campaigns don’t work effectively in digital social media environment.

    Old versus new power values. Image from HBR article here https://hbr.org/2014/12/understanding-new-power

    The “I’m the expert just follow what I say” seem to be a less appealing to social media crowd than that of the “bottoms up, grassroots or collaborative approach. The new leadership model committed to empowering the crowd with new power values are the most successful ones. Values like collaboration, radical transparency, maker mentality and overall general participation characterise this new power value. Social media smacks right into the heart of these new power values. Leaders who are adept at these new power values empower and mobilize the crowd .

    T3. What best strategy can you advise health leaders in using social media to mobilize and effect change in healthcare?

    Thankfully, many organisations (old and new power structures alike) are restructuring, recalibrating their health campaigns to align with the intricacies of new power tools, like social media. That is something we can learn from this deluge of disease outbreaks and health misinformation. This is the topic of this #HealthXPh chat come February 9, 2019 9PM Manila time as we build consensus of how to’s in implementing health social media campaigns that empowers and mobilizes the crowd.

    Join #healthXPh chat with these guide questions in mind:

    • T1. What old media health campaign strategies work in social media?
    • T2. Why did some social media campaigns failed to mobilize the crowd and effect change in healthcare?
    • T3. What best social media strategy will you advise health leaders in mobilising and effecting changes in healthcare?

    References:

    • Keselman A, Arnott Smith C, Murcko AC, Kaufman DR (2019) Evaluating the Quality of Health Information in a Changing Digital Ecosystem J Med Internet Res 2019;21(2):e11129 URL: https://www.jmir.org/2019/2/e11129
    • Sak,G; Diviani, N; Allam, A; Schulz, P: (2016) Comparing the Quality of Pro- and Anti-vaccination Online InformationA Content Analysis of Vaccination-Related Webpages BMC Public Health. 2016;16(38) 
    • Heimans, J; Timms, H. (2014) “Understanding “New Power””. Harvard Business Review. December 2014.
    • Heimans, J; Timms, H. (2018) New Power: How Power Works in Our Hyperconnected World- and How to Make It Work for You. New York, Penguin Random House LLC

  • How Ordinary People Can Help Their Country

    After many similar hair-breadth escapes, we at last swiftly glided into what had just been one of the outer circles, but now crossed by random whales, all violently making for one centre. This lucky salvation was cheaply purchased by the loss of Queequeg’s hat, who, while standing in the bows to prick the fugitive whales, had his hat taken clean from his head by the air-eddy made by the sudden tossing of a pair of broad flukes close by.

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  • Strategies and technologies healthcare professionals use for learning

    Why are you still studying? Are the years of medical school and training not enough?

    Barely an hour before writing this post, a neighbour knocked on my door asking if I could look at his 9 months old nephew. His nephew is weak, have an on and off fever for a week, and is vomiting since this morning. “Your nephew is dehydrated” I said. “Bring him to the nearest hospital now. ” I couldn’t remember the last time I managed a pediatric acute gastroenteritis. As an orthopedic surgeon, I rarely deal with such cases unless one of my family member contracts the disease. Even then, I rarely manage pediatric AGE.

    This is why healthcare professionals need to continually learn even after med school and training. You’ll never know what disease or which patient will come “knocking” on your door. Besides, many of us tend to forget clinical skills we haven’t use for some time. Society also expect us to be competent practitioners, irregardless of the specialised field you’re into. My neighbour for example, believed I’m competent in managing pediatric AGE, despite him knowing I’m an orthopedic surgeon for years!

    Learning also benefits us and our patients even in our narrow fields of practice. Learning is a moral and ethical responsibility embedded in the many oaths we took entering this profession.
    The ever changing landscape of diseases, research findings, healthcare issues and clinical management skills favours health professionals who consistently learn or upgrade their knowledge and skills. The information explosion and affordances of new technologies might also help us cure some disease, alleviate the ills or empathise with our patients. Simply put, we need to continually learn for our patients.

    T1. What inspires you to learn?

    We learn for our patients, but we are the learner. Society expects healthcare professionals to be lifelong learners- perpetually proficient and competent in the medical field. In practice, our learning environment shifts from formal school to include, informal, out of school, face to face, at a distance or a mix of all these. Different environments have varying nuances for learning. Some strategies work best for a certain learning environment. Most of us couldn’t simply drop our professional practice to go back to formal school. We have to find other ways learning befitting four learning or practice context.

    T2. What is your strategy for learning?

    While we use many similar technologies for learning across these different contexts, recent technologies afforded us newer non traditional ways of learning. Online technologies for example allowed us to learn without leaving our practice. With appropriate technologies, we can now choose when, how and where to learn. Feedly for example allows me to aggregate, curate and organize medical information efficiently.

    T3. What technologies do you use for learning?

    As healthcare professionals, patients inspire us most to continuously learn. When our learning shifts from formal school alone to include many other environments, we must be able to examine and employ strategies and then find appropriate technologies to maximize learning. It is then that “we direct ” or take control of our own learning.

    In this November 10, 2018 9PM Manila time #HealthXPh chat, we will explore paradigms and technologies by which healthcare professionals learn today. By paradigm I mean a theory, a strategy, a method or “lens” by which we anchor what and how we learn. Technologies refer to any tool, mainstream or emergent that you use to learn or maximize learning. These are our guide questions:

    • T1. What inspires you to learn?
    • T2. What is your strategy for learning?
    • T3. What technologies do you use for learning?

    (If you want to learn more about my paradigm of learning and technologies I use to support it, read this article)

  • Nudges: Motivations for Social Media Success in Healthcare.

    “Breaking down barriers to information sharing should be humanity’s collective goal, not building sand castle monuments to our achievement”- Hogan and Winter (2017)

    “Social media is just hype, a fad. It will die a natural death soon.”- Anonymous

    I’ve been blogging on five different niches since 2007. I’m advocating improving medical education, patient care, sustainable ecotourism, social innovation and research on social media. Ten years is a stretch considering how fast social media and other online tools appear on our screens. An audit of “accomplishments” with social media, should be in place right?

    “What do you get from using social media? Help people? Advance your career? Earn money?”

    Defining success in any field is never an easy task. Measuring the impact of a tool (such as social media) to that success, is even harder. If we define success as an observable change in a person or a society however, success is measurable.  It follows then that the indispensable tools impacting these changes are also measurable.

    Why am I asking these questions? Humans tend to replicate their successes and learn from their mistakes. The social, political and even economic changes we see in the 21st century occurred with the help of social media. Even healthcare, which is resistant to change, gave way to social pressures vis a vis social media.  We should be able to measure the impact of a tool to that change.  Or keep trying. 

    What’s more important to me was my motivation behind social media use.

    T1: “Did social media helped in the success of my healthcare advocacy?”

    I culled my ten years of social media practice into a series of blog post outlining how to’s of “successful social media campaigns”.  I went further with moderating chats on the impact of social media to a HCP’s clinical excellence here. The SMART metrics I outlined here seem superfluous from a healthcare professional’s perspective, but it sure did help.

    This comment by van der Linden (2017) in Nature suggest deeper engagements with both extrinsic and intrinsic motivations for social media advocacies. He suggested the reason for why advocacies last longer than viral hype.  Extrinsic motivation like the social pressures mentioned by Linden in his SMART chart below, explains the viral but short lived success of some of advocacies.

    The SMART chart by van der Linden

    This lead me to another question:

    T2: “What were my motivation(s) for using social media in a successful advocacy?”

    I looked back at some of my social media advocacies. I had varied motivations ranging from socially- desirable pledges of helping out a community, to a more intrinsic, personal ones like “learning this or that”. If I use the more extrinsic criteria like the SMART chart, I probably flunked. Medical education and patient care still needs improvement. Ecotourism is far from sustainable. Social innovations still languish and researches fail to pass even the lab doors. I can count a few more learning points from such failures but what I could not reconcile is this:

    I am still here. I’m still using social media to further advocacies- mine or someone else’s. Many of my social media friends and colleagues from the past went on to some other endeavours. Others stayed and pushed forward advocacies I can only dreamed of. This got me thinking:

    T3: “What made me/us stick to using social media for our successful advocacies?”

    Van der Linden  pointed some interesting observations. Intrinsic motivations favor more lasting and sustainable social media campaigns, along with a “yearly, recurrent event or behaviour”. I can think of the latter as akin to our weekly social media tweet chat and annual summit at #HealthXPh. The tweet chat and annual summit bound us for years.

    The intrinsic motivation is well, deeply engaging for me. “Selfish” if you think of it as pushing a personal agenda. This is however the same personal agenda, that magic that happened to many healthcare professionals I look up to professionally nowadays.

    The internet and social media made lifelong learning readily possible for me. Apart from breaking geographic, cultural and financial barriers, lifelong learning (though internet and social media) pushed both my professional and academic development, forward. I probably couldn’t quantify how much social media helped me, but I can’t imagine learning now if I have not.

    Indeed medical education needs further improvements. Social media though allowed me to expand the depth and girth of my medical knowledge beyond the halls of institutions, the paywalls of journals and the monopolies first world medicine and education. I’m learning not only from my patients but from others who share their experiences online. You help patients and colleagues beyond your limited medical/surgical skills could offer. I can name a few dozen academic and advocacy headaches that have yet to be solved even with social media around. But those I did? Those wouldn’t be possible without social media and the internet.

    Thanks to technology, we never stopped learning. To better quantify its contribution, we should have thought about success in and using social media for advocacies ten years ago. That’s the best time to adapt, in the field of medicine, healthcare and where ever applicable. The second best time is now.

    Join us this Saturday September 22 9PM Manila time for an exciting #HealthXPh tweet chat discussion on motivations for social media success in healthcare. These are our guide questions:

    • T1: “Did social media helped in the success of my healthcare advocacy?”
    • T2: “What were my motivation(s) of using social media for an advocacy?”
    • T3: “What made me/us stick to using social media for our successful advocacies?”

     

    References:

    Aguilar, R. (2016, April 29). Part IV: Assigning SMART metrics to social media channels [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://remomd.com/social-media/assigning-metrics-social-media-channel.html

    Aguilar, R. (2017, March 11). Metric Matrix: How should we measure the impact of social media on clinical excellence? [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://remomd.com/social-media/assigning-metrics-social-media-channel.html

    van der Linden, S. (n.d.). The future of behavioral insights: On the importance of socially situated nudges. Behavioural Public Policy, 1-11. doi:10.1017/bpp.2018.22

    van der Linden, S. (2017a), ‘The nature of viral altruism and how to make it stick’, Nature Human Behaviour, 1. 10.1038/s41562-016-0041.

    Hogan, A. M., & Winter, D. C. (2017). Changing the Rules of the Game: How Do We Measure Success in Social Media? Clinics in Colon and Rectal Surgery, 30(4), 259–263. http://doi.org/10.1055/s-0037-1604254