The conference has begun with a terrific challenge from Peter Strombom, a conference co-chairman.  Peter's thesis is that no one knows all of what is available today in health care IT, nor does anyone know what will be available to us in the future.  These are questions the co-chairman hopes will play a large part in the discussions this afternoon and tomorrow.

Mike Klein has included in his opening remarks a statement about a social networking site I've been scratching my head about recently.  Mike commented on reports within the past few days that only 30 percent of those who register on Twitter come back after 30 days.  Since not too long after I registered on Twitter, I've wondered about its utility.  It seems to make sense for organizations like newspapers and web sites that want to drive traffic to their sites.  But for Joes like me, the utility of Twitter is far cloudier.

Dr. Barry Chaiken, the other conference chairman, has taken the podium to speak about Twitter and other social networking tools.  He cites technological and sociological differences between the United States and Europe to explain the difference in social networking usership from one shore of the Atlantic to the other.

Dr. Chaiken is now talking about how he's using social networking in the creation of a new worldwide organization called the Global Health Alliance.  The alliance was organized to share medical images and other clnical content and case information.  Social networking is helping to shape and drive the collaboration.  He's now displaying the portal--www.medting.com--through which this collaboration is occuring.  It looks easy to use and information rich.

Dr. Chaiken is now making very interesting comments about how the cultural norms of social networking have not been established.  Is commerical activity acceptable on Twitter and Facebook?  How deep into your network will you go for an introduction?  These and other rules are still being made.  It strikes me through my own experience with social networking that the lack of these rules is part of the reason that those tools fall flat on their faces for some, if not many, of us.

Mike has just asked Dr. Chaiken about the role of social media in communication about the H1N1 pandemic.  Dr. Chaiken believes that not all of the cases that have been discovered worldwide would have been known without social networking.  This has very important epidemiological advantages for the global response.  The bad side, however, of social and online media is that there is no regulator of what is true.  Many people, Dr. Chaiken said, will not eat pork in fear of catching the swine flu, even though there is not evidence the disease can be caught through pork consumption.