According to Klout (often a source of debate in the digital world), below are the Top 10 “influencers” in healthcare, along with my comments.
If you’re not on Twitter personally, I’d highly recommend you join today so you can tune into the conversation happening online. And regardless of your personal convictions about the Klout score, I’d encourage you to accept the reality that this digital benchmark is not going away any time soon.
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These Top 10 healthcare influencers were calculated over the last 90 days, with “KevinMD,” a familiar name in healthcare social media (#hcsm), holding the top spot.
1. Kevin Pho: He rules the physician space. All hospitals and physicians with an interest in social media should be following him.
2. American Medical Association: AMA, an organization blazing the trail as advocates in healthcare social media through the promotion of best practices and guidelines for physicians.
3. Shawn Riley: A leader at Mayo Clinic. Makes sense since Mayo is a thought leader in #hcsm.
4. Brian Ahier: Represents the IT side of healthcare, and has a tremendous following in this niche.
5. E-Patient Dave: Dave deBronkart represents the patient voice in healthcare social media. An important aspect for us healthcare marketers.
6. Val Jones: Another physician presence, with a specific focus consumer healthcare.
7. Health Affairs: This is a peer-reviewed public policy journal; pretty standard.
8. Phil Baumann: Founder of the healthcare social media consulting firm, so you’ll find marketing-minded tweets with a medical background.
9. Jen McCabe: Founder of Seattle-based start-up that’s developing algorithms to provide personalized health recommendations. Honestly, this is the name I was least familiar with.
10. Dave Walker: A pharmacist and health technology enthusiast serving as a resource for health news.