IHA will be hosting its first Social Media and Health Care Conference on February 9, 2010 at Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines.  Certain to be one of the conference highlights (and there will be several) is a presentation from Lee Aase of Mayo Clinic.

For those of you who are not familiar with Lee, he is a pioneer of hospital social media.  When others were breaking social media ground with shovels, Lee fired up a front-end loader and has been plowing the way ever since.  While Lee is understanding about hospitals hesitating on social media, he has little patience for those who suffer from paralysis by over-analysis, as he discussed in this recent interview: 

“Don’t let strategy become an excuse for inaction. Often organizations wait to become involved in social media until they have thought through every imaginable scenario, and that’s fine, to a point. But too frequently they go way beyond due diligence to a social media form of hypochondria or paranoia.”

 Just as important, most social media tools come at virtually no cost:

 “If you spend any money to communicate with employees or customers, why wouldn’t you take advantage of free tools that help you do it better?”

 The IHA Social Media and Health Care Conference is going to be a full-day of excellent presentations from Lee Aase and others who will introduce you to social media, help you understand how it impacts health care and how your hospital can benefit, show you how to measure results and give you the opportunity to hear from hospitals that have stepped boldly into this new frontier. 

Register now while space is still available!