A couple of weeks ago now, I was incredibly fortunate to win a scholarship to attend the Mayo Clinic’s Healthcare and Social Media Summit in Melbourne. I’m a little slow in getting anything out about it, because…well because November. But November is over! And finally, the first of the few posts I’ve started is here and the others are coming. #Tardy

Five scholarships were offered for consumers to attend, and I was encouraged to apply. So, I diligently filled in my application, hitting ‘submit’ moments before the deadline. (Not to self – always have an up-to-date bio available!) And then, the week before the conference, I squealed aloud in a meeting when I received the email, letting me know my application was successful.

The scholarship recipients. (Click photo for source.)

Before the event even started, there was online chatter about making sure the consumer reps in the room connected. Which we did! Before and throughout the conference, calls to ‘find your tribe’ resonated, and I certainly felt I had found mine! It was an absolute delight to meet and an honour to wave the consumer flag alongside Carly, Mel, Liat and Belinda.

And others in the tribe made me realise just how high the bar is set! Lisa Ramshaw, event organiser, is a force of nature. There is no other word for her enthusiasm and dedication to healthcare social media. I suspect Melissa Cadzow has #patientsincluded tattooed on her body somewhere so great is her commitment to the inclusion of consumers in all activities that affect us!

Kim giving her talk

And of course, the five-minute presentation in the innovation showcase from Kim Henshaw about OzDOC presented another strong consumer voice to the event. Kim spoke about how healthcare professionals use the weekly tweetchat as a platform to learn and engage with consumers. Kim did the OzDOC community proud with her talk, using her time to accurately crystalise the very essence of the power and influence of an online network.

It’s these people that are the reason I love these sorts of conferences – and their like-minded attitude, and endless promotion of the importance of the consumer voice and the value of using social to connect, inform and support. This is mostly a huge positive, but it does get me thinking that the people who should also be in the room probably aren’t. Organisation CEOs need to be better represented to be taken on the journey of why HCSM cannot be dismissed as ‘the way of the future, so we’ll get to it soon’, but rather ‘It’s here. We need to Do.It.Now.’ This would inform a true real top down / bottom up approach to embracing healthcare social media within their organisations.

The diabetes contingent: Me, Kim and Mel

The underlying message of the conference – at least for me – was reinforcement of something that I have known and promoted for a long time: health social networks bring people together. Before online social platforms, we did it face-to-face. The message of the ‘modern day kitchen table’ was brought home to me again and again and again, and I understood that the barriers to using social are absolutely not insurmountable – despite feeling that way at times with all the justifying we seem to have to do.

And the message of ‘Connected communities get more done’, rang so true. I thought to the first morning of the conference when I was late because I’d been moderating an hour of the 24 hour World Diabetes Day tweetchat, talking diabetes stigma with people from all over the world, affected by diabetes. I thought to the Spare a Rose; Save a Child campaign. I thought about #DSMA and #DeDOC and #OzDOC and all the ways that our own diabetes community connects to get things done.

My conference fees for the two days of the #MayoInOz conference were covered through the consumer scholarship program. I was not expected to write anything in exchange for the scholarship. Thank you to the organisers of the event, Consumer Health Forum Australia and Melissa Cadzow for the scholarship. You can read more about the conference by clicking on this link for tweets.