On October 31st we will be hosting our final HCLDR tweetchat at 8:30pm ET. Although I am sad that the chat is ending, this is not goodbye. The HCLDR community will continue beyond the tweetchat – and at some point in the future may reconstitute on a different platform. The #hcldr tweetchat has lasted far longer than I ever hoped. When the chat started back in August 2012, I thought we would last a year or maybe two. It is a testament to this community that we have been continued for just over 11 years! Wow. Think about that. 11 years ago, interoperability was just a word spoken in hushed voic ..read more

As we march towards the final HCLDR Tweetchat on October 31st 2023, we are taking the opportunity to use these final chats to look back and reflect on what this community has achieved together. I thought this week we could share stories about the connections we have made through HCLDR. Join our chat on Tuesday September 26th at 8:30pm ET (for your local time click here). One of the goals we had for this community when we first started, was to bring people together who had a shared passion for improving healthcare. We used Twitter to facilitate those connections, but it was always our hope tha ..read more

As we announced last week, we are winding down the HCLDR tweetchats. Our final Tuesday night chat will be October 31st. It has been a fantastic journey with this community. Joe, myself, and I suspect all former HCLDR hosts, are proud of how inclusive and supportive this community has become. Even though the tweetchats are coming to an end, we hope to keep the community going in another form. In the meantime, between now and October 31st is the HCLDR “farewell tour”. We hope that many members of the community will drop back in to reconnect and share memories, thoughts, and suggestions. The cha ..read more

Blog by Joe Babaian Roads fork, things change, the spirit remains. I won’t waste time burying the lede. We all know what a hugely different place Twitter is – and that’s all about change. We can’t control that. Colin and I have had a difficult time coming to terms with what’s best for #hcldr. The community will always be #hcldr, even for those not active weekly. It’s not *just* a chat. The vehicle is damaged, and we have decided to end #hcldr’s weekly Tweetchats at the end of October – Halloween! We will have a series of goodbye chats over the next weeks – including all of you! These will be ..read more

Blog post by Joe Babaian It’s the kind of mistrust of science because science is viewed as authority. And there’s a lot of anti-authority feeling. I think that’s the kind of thing that drives the anti-vaxxers, the people who don’t believe the science of vaccination and don’t want to get their children vaccinated. It’s all part of that trend, which is very disturbing. ~Dr. Anthony Fauci Confidence in healthcare and science – the system and the medical profession is rooted in experience, connections, and perception. Different segments of society have varying levels of trust based on socio-eco ..read more

August 13th is the anniversary of the death of Florence Nightingale – British nurse, statistician, infection preventionist, social reformer, and patient advocate. At the end of her life, she was bedridden for several years, but she did not let that stop her from her campaign to improve health standards. Although she was never officially diagnosed, many scholars and medical historians believe she suffered from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, ME/CFS). For that reason, Nightingale has been adopted as a “famous face” for MD/CFS. May 12th, the birthday of Nightingale is Myalgi ..read more

There is a question that has been on my mind recently and it has to do with innovation in healthcare. A friend of mine who works in a different industry asked me “So where is innovation happening in healthcare?”. In response, I rhymed off several interesting products and organizations. After politely listening to me drone on, he said something that has stuck with me: “Those all sound like wonderful things that people are doing to make healthcare better, but it really doesn’t sound like any of them are doing anything to really change healthcare and make it different. I thought you all would ha ..read more

Blog post by Joe Babaian It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently. ~ Warren Buffett This week on #hcldr let’s talk about something we all think about – sometimes directly, other times more passingly, but we all know it matters: our online reputation via our interactions and how that translates into our “real life”. During this entire pandemic, everyone has shed some layers of their protective cloaks and worked to share their authentic selves. This can work to burnish one’s reputation or detract from it – depe ..read more

On the next HCLDR weekly tweetchat, we welcome special guest host Richard Webster, PhD. Richard will be leading us in a discussion on climate change initiatives at healthcare organizations. Please join the community and Richard on Tuesday July 18th at 8:30pm ET (for your local time click here). Below is the informative blog that Richard crafted to introduce the topic. Enjoy Healthcare has a healing mission and has committed to “do no harm,” yet the healthcare system significantly impacts climate change and human health. Five percent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are from healthcare ..read more

Blog by Joe Babaian – Twitter & Threads What a wild time in social media! Where does healthcare – from #hcldr to #MedTwitter call home? The jury is out. I am checking out Threads and still using Twitter. I like the ease of use, the familiarity, and the accessablity of Threads so far. Low, very low, barriers to entry. That’s key. Moderation, ahem, seems to exist but I cannot say how effective or ongoing it will be. What good is moving to a new platform to be “right” when no one is there? Sophie’s Choice? Perhaps. No one, NO ONE, has the answer, we are all figuring this out as we go. Let’s ..read more