7 reasons to join your online health communities
How do people decide whether to join an online health community? I posted late last year about my search through food allergy websites after my daughter had several severe food allergy reactions. As always, the search made me try to identifywhat exactly I’m looking for when I seek out health communities. Here’s what I think influences me. 1. Recency The site should have posts from the (very) recent past – if I’m posting to a health forum, I’m hoping for a reply quickly. A site with no posts in the last week is not likely to be a great source of advice. 2....
Read MoreFinding online communities for allergy support
Social media and severe allergies Last week, I got involved in a Twitter discussion on health care, blogging and social media – the regular discussion (#hcsm and #hcsmeu) hosted by Andrew Spong. I find these discussions interesting but also somewhat perplexing. The ‘perplexing’ part is undoubtedly because the contributors are health policy experts, and the discussion is extremely general. The ‘interesting’ part – well, I’m the mother of a little girl with severe food allergies and as such have been a rather more active user of health services than...
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