Twitterdum and Twitterdee

Tweedledum and tweededee,
Agreed to have a battle,
For Tweedledum said Tweedledee
Had spoiled his nice new rattle.

Lewis Carroll (1832-1898), Through a Looking Glass

I became interested in Twitter for two reasons:

One was the instant spectacular successes of Twitter and Facebook as the leading social media sites linking billions of people across the globe.

Two was the emergence and prominence of Kevin Pho, MD, as America’s leading social media blogger .

In March 2013, I favorably reviewed Doctor Pho’s and Susan Gay’s book Establishing, Managing and Protecting Your Online Reputation: A Social Media Guide for Physicians and Medical Practices, with these words:

“Dr. Pho and Ms. Gay offer highly organized key points, useful statistics and exuberant testimonials from doctors who have successfully leapt over the digital divide. There is plenty of practical advice, too, on topics ranging from what to post and when to engage, confer or rebuff, to how to decide what might be unethical . (Answer:“Can you say it aloud in a full hospital elevator?”).”

In any event, it is a fine book. I recommend it. I trust it is selling well. It was such a pervasive book that I decided to take the plunge and start twittering to see if I could rattle the health reform cages.

We live in a information-rich, attention-short age, and I hoped I could gain the attention of a few more readers in 140 characters or less in an age long on information and on short for pith. I have been told I am full of pith, so why not?

I have been twittering ever since. I have composed 465 tweets. The number of Tweets I have done now crop up alongside tweets of Kevin Pho, the Mayo Clinic, New York Times Health, and WSJ Health News. along with tweets of many distinguished personages, including Laura Landro of the Wall Street Journal.

Here are a smattering if my latest tweets.

• Keywords for doctors searching Net for ObamaCare options: affordability, worksite clinics, direct pay, concierge, independent practice.

• Unfavorable views of health law spiked in July with only 37% supporting it. More unhappiness will come in November midterms.

• Supreme Court ruling on subsidies would feature Straight & Narrow against Broad & Flexible. See Medinnovation blog.

• 4 corporate trends to save health costs : HSAs, self-funding, worksite clinics, direct pay for doctors and surgeries.

• Sharp premium spikes are due to miscalculations and uncertainties of demographic signups for health exchanges.

• GOP lawsuit basis: Article 1 vests power in Congress; Article 2 requires Obama to faithfully execute laws.

• On ObamaCare, Mark Twain might have said, “It’s not as bad as it sounds.” See medinnovation blog for other things Twain might have said.

• Because 3rd party administration accounts for a much as 40% of health costs, consumers and corporation are turning to direct pay.

My twittering tale has a happy ending. The number of page views has more than quadrupled since I started twittering, and now number consistently over 6000 each day.

How tweet it is.