Signaling A New Direction

Since I started blogging back in October of 2007, I have always been working toward providing relevant information to those that may come by and read. I started out with a pretty general focus, covering anything related to both health and technology, also trying to combine the two topics. I came up with some pretty good material, including a great two part interview with Troy Turner who works with high tech prosthetics for the military. I was pretty proud of that one and Troy has also invited me down to where he works so that I can get an even more in-depth look at the facilities and what he does. I am definitely going to take him up on that offer.

So this month would make it just about 11 months since I first began thinking and writing about how the health world would be transformed by technology and Web 2.0 advances. Once again, I’m pretty proud of myself for leaving the safe world of information consumption and turning to a more active role of information production. I’ve been told several times that I’m good at conducting research to find information that I need/want – it basically is just me understanding that pretty much whatever you need to learn, the information is out there, especially now that we have such a content heavy version of the Internet. The bottomline is that I love to learn new things, I’m an information nut! And what that means for Pulse and Signal is that I want to share anything I know about the Web, technology, and health to those who are interested.

With that in mind, I wanted to write about the direction that I am planning to take the blog. After spending time in the public health and health education fields while getting my undergraduate degree, I learned alot about trends and influences determining our collective health. Then as I began to expose myself to everything about social media and Web technology, I thought about how it could be used to influence the health world. Social media really brought back out my passion for improving lives through health education and communication and I saw an opportunity to rekindle the fire I had during college. And now I’ve realized

how I’m going to make those improvements – through empowering those who are already in the health field and have an interest in using these technologies to better educate and communicate with their audiences.

How is blogging helpful for health educators/communicators? (reaching a wider audience)

Are we done with PowerPoint slideshows that are overpacked with information? (You betcha)

Are we ready to embrace a new world of communicating and disseminating information? (I hope so, because it’s here and not going anywhere)

I hope you will continue to join me for some great content and engaging discussion. I will be learning along with you and hoping to make a difference by navigating through these changing and exciting times.

Tagged as: communications, future, health, health2.0, Public Health