Health lessons of Social Media, Technology and Change: Take 1

A series of papers in the health journal The Lancet has taken a close look at the prospects for eradicating one of the history's great health scourges: Malaria.

While official estimates suggest that about 1 million people a year die from the disease (80% under the age of 5), we recently reported on new evidence that the true number could be as much as 13 times higher, or 13 million.

The series ends with an economic analysis by the Clinton Health Access Initiative finds that it's cheaper to continue controlling the disease than it is to eradicate it, and that future savings will not offset the extra cost of eradication. For example, the liklihood that eradication would be cost-saving over 50 years was found to be less than 10% in three countries—China, Mauritius, Swaziland—and only moderately higher in one country, Tanzania.

The Justmeans Social Media , Technology and Change conference (#socialmediacsr) that occurred this past Monday offered numerous insights into this type of moral predicament in health economics (this column will be digging into more conference findings over the coming week.) Some social media lessons from conference presenters worth considering:

• Today's consumers are also today's donors to social causes. Many may only donate small sums, but to date The American Red Cross has raised $32 million for Haiti earthquake relief in $10 donations. These consumers and donors won't simply blindly sign checks, they expect:


• Their purchasing and investing to match values of social responsibility and environmental sustainability


• To build relationships over time based on honesty, trust, transparency and authenticity


• To be inspired to get involved further, either with additional donations or purchases, by spreading the word, or otherwise becoming more deeply engaged.

It is very difficult to satisfy any of those principles with cold and simple economic analyses suggesting that human suffering itself isn't part of the international health equation. Sometimes the value of doing the right thing can factor into a balance sheet as an additional asset with real monetary value.

Can engaging directly with micro-level donors and individual purchasers help eradicate global health scourges such as malaria? In the nano-second micro-blogging, how can we capture and hold the interest and passion of the apparent idealism that fuels the social media generation, with the goal of having them opt into a longer term, more deeply engaged relationship?

Photo Credit: The author