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Earlier this year I read a post from John Halamka's Blog that got me very interested in social networking for business purposes. I already had a Facebook account, an old out of date LinkedIn and Plaxo accounts, but I was intrigued at the possibilities to use this platform as a way to rapidly connect with others interested in healthcare information technology and healthcare reform. Up to that point I had mostly used Facebook as a personal space to connect with close friends and family (I still reserve it for mainly that purpose - my wife and I share the same page) I started exploring the features of LinkedIn and Plaxo and have recently opened a Twitter account.

LinkedIn and Plaxo are great ways to network with other professionals in your field. I know people who have found both jobs and excellent employees using these social media sites. There groups that you can join which will help you connect with like-minded people. All 500 corporations of the Fortune 500 are represented on LinkedIn. You might be amazed at the connections you can make. Check out the LinkedIn Blog to learn more about these powerful tools.

I have found Twitter to be a very powerful tool for real-time communication and an amazing way to connect with people, events and information from all over the world. I have kept my focus completely on health IT. I don't think there are many people wanting to know my adventures in dog walking or my recent struggle with pizza addiction ;-) You can see my latest posts on the left of this page and follow me on Twitter. If you open a new Twitter account a good primer is found on the Wall Street Journal web site. There is also a great article on Healthcare Informatics web site.

The Obama administration has been using Twitter and Facebook. Now almost every federal government agency has an account. The recent HIT Policy Committee had interesting coverage on Twitter from the #HITpol hashtag. There will be more coverage for the Standards committee on Friday at this site. As the flow of information intensifies over 'meaningful use' of an EHR, and the dollars start to flow from ARRA, Twitter can be a great tool to keep in touch with developments, make contacts, and join in the discussion. Together, we can do this thing...