During a recent episode of NPR I heard a discussion of a new service that will be hitting the USA soon. The service will allow people to Tweet a question using a specific hashtag and get an answer back in real time. The service will leverage a huge network of physicians and the popular social media platform Twitter, to help people get accurate information on health related topics.
Not sure what to do for your baby’s’ fever? Tweet it and a doctor will respond.
I’m going to guess that this will become a popular service, especially since most recent studies indicate that a large percentage of women and mothers spend a great deal of time using social media. This will add yet another reason to hop online and check your recent status messages.
This will also be a great branding tool for hospitals and health care facilities that have doctors who participate. I can envision a service like this turning into a Yelp like review site where the doctors that provide the best or most “liked” answers will get more business and more recognition for themselves and their respected employers.
Of course there will obviously be a few caveats, and hospitals and doctors will need to be careful about what advice they provide but I think that once the rules are defined this is a win-win for everyone.