Social Media Holds Big Potential For Public Health

Another example of the growing convergence between our public and private, our digital and our "actual" selves: NPR reports that targeting via Facebook population groups at risk for diseases such as HIV has an impact and can increase awareness and testing. 

The real nut of the article (for me at least) is where they note: "Because there are no best practices for using social media to communicate health information, the peer leaders had to make it up as they went along."

That people are turning towards social media for things other than the quick status update or newest NSA joke isn't big news. In fact, new stats show that there is a growing demand in the social media space for health research. Twitter has shown it's at least somewhat useful for tracking epidemics and other public health matters, as well. Social media is without a doubt an actor in the healthcare space.