John Sharp reports A Limited Showing for Web 2.0 at the HIMSS (Healthcare Information Management Systems Society) annual conference this year. It appears that healthcare organizations and companies are taking the slow road to adopting these social networking technologies.

In his post Web 2.0 in Health Care - Where's the Value, John mentions that the healthcare industry strives to minimize risk (patients health, legal, etc.) and maximize authority control (clinical trials, peer review, records management, etc.) by ensuring reliable, authoritive, trustworthy information. This mindset seems to be at odds with the principles of open social networking where everyone owns, contributes, and is responsible for information. Essentially the wisdom of a select few vs. the wisdom of the masses. However, all is not lost, according to John social networking in healthcare will eventually come to fruition. "Web 2.0 concepts have been present in healthcare for a long time but at the same time the technology is perceived as a threat. A contradiction? No, just a social trend which will take time to sort out."

I find these two posts particularly interesting because it give medical librarians a small glimpse into the world of healthcare information managers (the IT department) and social networking. Some librarians report their IT departments are fairly flexible and allow them to do some Web 2.0 things such as IM for reference questions. While other librarians report their IT departments are resistant to anything and everything and they can't even create their own library home pages on the hospital's intranet site.

I find it ironic that the very people responsible for technology in the hospital workplace finds social technology a threat. Why? Do they fear it because it is new? Or do they fear the loss of control?

Labels: Social Software