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

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

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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

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?

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. © Copyright IBM Corporation 2008 Sept. 4, 2008 Presentation to Medicine 2.0 Congress, Toronto, Canada

On social networks, “opinion leaders” are everyday people writing about health problems Source : Adapted from, Seeman N, Electronic Healthcare , 2008 Based on N=100, MySpace.com 10 Alcohol Dependency 9 Obsessive Compulsive Disorder 8 Chronic Pain 7 Chronic Fatigue 6 Obesity 5 Diabetes 4 Autism 3 Cancer 2 Bipolar Illness 1 Depression Rank among Chronic Illness Communities Focus

Among physicians, there are also nodes. Blogs are tools to lead opinion. Source : Valdis Krebs, http://www.orgnet.com/KOL.html

What attributes do leading health blogs share?

Run by subject matter experts (SMEs)?

Discuss health news that matters?

Protect user privacy?

Highly used?

For patients: benefits of health blogs

Navigate the continuum of care

Empowerment

Share challenges and solutions

Knowledge of treatments and medications

Single access point

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

For health professionals: benefits

Intellectual capital

Collaboration

Understanding patient needs

Protocols to support clinical treatment

For hospitals and health regions: benefits

Client health literacy

Philanthropy and volunteer recruitment

Patient self-care, goal-setting

Research and educational activity

The blogosphere is expanding rapidly… Source : Technorati, 2006

… 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”

The influence of newspapers is in decline

14 out of 21 EU countries

saw newspaper circulation

decline in 2005.

16 out of 20 EU countries

saw newspaper circulation

decline from 2001-2005.

Source: World Association of Newspapers 0.05 -9.85 United Kingdom -1.34 -2.23 Sweden -0.94 -1.73 Spain 19.44 NA Slovenia -4.17 -8.55 Slovakia -3.88 NA Portugal 9.80 21.63 Poland -3.67 -10.58 Netherlands, The -2.25 1.46 Latvia 0.03 -5.25 Italy 2.16 28.91 Ireland -0.68 -12.31 Hungary -4.05 -11.62 Greece -2.5 -9.63 Germany -1.6 -7.38 France -0.67 -2.99 Finland -0.39 -0.78 Estonia -2.64 -11.4 Denmark 4.88 0.87 Czech Republic -1.35 -4.25 Belgium 0.42 0.09 Austria 2005/2004% 2005/2001% Country

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

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

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

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

Do blogs discuss important medical news? * 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