Going viral with public health messages

Jun 11 2013

Kaiser Health News reports on how one doctor is using YouTube to communicate public health messages while The Washington Post reports on how a data event leads to consideration of health care cost solutions. 

Kaiser Health News: A Doctor Goes Viral -- On Purpose
Using satire, rap and sometimes, a Michael Jackson glove, hospitalist Dr. Zubin Damania takes his alter ego, ZDoggMD, to YouTube to sing about everything from insurance paperwork to prostate cancer. The result is hundreds of thousands of online views, and comedy that parodies pop culture (he does an excellent Yoda impersonation) and pushes some boundaries (Rao, 7/9).

The Washington Post: Health Data Event Draws Companies Promising Cost Savings
As technology companies apply data analytics to virtually everything from Web traffic to movie recommendations, many are seeing health care as the next frontier. Companies from established contractors to start-ups are pitching data analysis as a critical way to improve the way doctors, patients, insurers and government bodies manage health care. The rush of fresh ideas encompasses a range of solutions, but the marketing is often the same: They all purport to address the rising cost of health care (Censer, 6/9).