Issue link: https://tmcpulse.uberflip.com/i/723999
t m c » p u l s e | s e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 6 2 TMC | PULSE Vol. 3 No. 8 September 2016 President and Chief Executive Ocer Robert C. Robbins, M.D. Vice President of Communications Christen David Pulse Editor Maggie Galehouse mgalehouse@tmc.edu Digital News Editor Shea Connelly sconnelly@tmc.edu Staff Writers Alexandra Becker Shanley Chien Christine Hall Britni N. Riley Photojournalist Cody Duty Advertising Coordinator Meagan McCullough NEWSROOM 713-791-8812 news@tmc.edu ADVERTISING 713-791-8894 newsads@tmc.edu DISTRIBUTION 713-791-6130 distribution@tmc.edu TMC Pulse is a monthly publication of the Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas. Permission from the editor is required to reprint any material. Editorial/advertising information is available upon request. Texas Medical Center News is a mem- ber of Houston Press Club, American Medical Writers Association, Association of Healthcare Journalists, and American Advertising Federation. PRESIDENT'S PERSPECTIVE ROBERT C. ROBBINS, M.D. President and Chief Executive Ocer, Texas Medical Center T his month's issue of Pulse considers the myriad ways social media is changing the world of medicine. We've known for some time that people with a community—people who have meaningful human interactions—will do better in terms of health. They live longer. They're happier, whatever "happier" means. Actually, if you really dig deep, you'll find that happiness is often service to others. And so many of the anecdotes in the "Social Media & Medicine" story bear this out. One woman who has struggled with miscarriages shares personal stories on her blog. This act of sharing is therapeutic for her and affirming to her readers who are also mourning babies. Finding public and private forums to share detailed medical information has become increasingly important to a public that wants better, faster answers about doctors and possible treatments. This is particularly true of rare or orphan diseases. Nobody's making drugs for them because it's not profitable. Nobody's creating medical devices for them because it's not profitable. Patients are caught in this conundrum, so they all band together on social media. They basically run a service that steers patients away from hacks and toward doctors and researchers who offer compassionate care and results. Health providers are profoundly limited in the medical information they can share, but regular people aren't. Right now, you have to ask permission to get your health data from the hospital, but eventually people will control their own data from a device. Think about it. You know all about your car, but you don't know all about your own body. When you control and manage your own health data, you'll probably be healthier. You'll say, "Wow, that's my BMI? That's my blood pressure? That's my cholesterol? I need to do something to get healthier." As medicine becomes more collaborative, social media platforms and smart- phone apps are, quite literally, placing our health in our own hands. Just like the human body, social media is a fascinating, ever-changing world of networks and connectivity.