To tap into the potential of social media for advancing health, providers and developers need to go where the people are and must change their thinking to a person-centered model of engagement…When professional baseball player Jayson Werth suffered a ulnotriquetral ligament split tear in 2005, doctors were at first unable to successfully diagnose and relieve pain from the injury, according to Farris Timimi, MD, of the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minn. Werth was eventually treated at the Mayo Clinic, and the organization used the high profile patient to garner publicity and spread information about the condition online and through YouTube videos. Mayo also hosted a Twitter chat session about the condition, through which Erin Turner, a woman who was suffering from an ulnotriquetral ligament split tear, became educated on her condition and was able to have it corrected.

CMIO by Evan Godt

Tags: CMIO, Dr. Farris Timimi, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Mayo Clinic Rochester, Social Media, twitter, ulnotriquetral ligament split tear