Starting My Second Revolution

It was 10 years ago this month that Minnesota Monthly, the magazine formerly published by Minnesota Public Radio, included me in its story called The Revolutionaries: 12 Minnesotans who are changing the way we think about the world—and its future.

I had started Mayo Clinic’s social media program as part of my role as manager for media relations, beginning with a makeshift podcast in 2005 and then branching into experiments with blogs and the various social networks.

By 2008 we were on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn, and also had a news blog that eventually became the Mayo Clinic News Network.

I understood that as Mayo Clinic’s reputation had been built for 150 years through word-of-mouth, these platforms would be ways that word would spread between people in the 21st century.

While the rest of the world uses youtube to post videos of their cats curled into shoeboxes, Lee Aase is using the medium—along with Facebook, Twitter, podcasts, and blogs—to upend health care as we know it.

Minnesota Monthly, February 2012

Along the way I met up with co-belligerents as we created what would become the Mayo Clinic Social Media Network, and we even wrote a book called Bringing the Social Media Revolution to Health Care. Meredith Gould, Ph.D. was our editor, and besides Farris Timimi, M.D., my great friend and medical director for social media at Mayo Clinic, our contributors included

That was a magical time, as we experimented together and encouraged innovative applications of social media to promote health, fight disease and improve health care.

I have many fond memories from that revolutionary movement, and now I’m excited to help start another one through HELPcare and HELPcare Clinic.

Instead of a health care communications revolution, it’s a revolution in health care practice. My experience in the former has equipped me for this next one.

So has my personal health journey.

HELPcare is my new venture that provides metabolic health coaching, education and peer support for people who want to turn back the clock on their health through lifestyle changes.

HELPcare also provide management services for HELPcare Clinic, a new direct primary care practice my dear friend and high school classmate, David Strobel, M.D., opened in our hometown of Austin, Minn. on Feb. 1.

In just its first month of part-time operation, HELPcare Clinic already has more than 200 members, and positive newspaper and TV feature stories in our local market.

Today we’re announcing HELPcare Clinic’s Corporate Membership program, which gives small businesses who can’t afford ACA-compliant insurance a way to support their employees’ health and well-being.

Direct primary care is a growing trend. Likewise, many people are finding a low-carb, ketogenic diet combined with intermittent fasting is enabling significant health restoration.

I think the synergy between an affordable, membership-based medical practice that provides unhurried, unlimited primary care services in concert with lifestyle coaching that equips members to address underlying causes of disease will be powerful.

Hopefully even Revolutionary.

The New Era of Healthcare Communications

I’m delighted to be in Nashville this afternoon to provide the opening keynote at the Health:Further 2016 Summit. It’s a special treat because it’s also my first face-to-face meeting with Andre Blackman, one of our #MCSMN External Advisory Board members. Andre is organizing the event and invited me to kick it off.

Here are the slides for my 25-minute keynote:

If you’re not part of our Mayo Clinic Social Media Network, please check out our free Basic Membership or other options.

Communications Convergence at Mayo Clinic

This morning my colleague Annie Burt and I had an opportunity to present to the Minnesota IABC Convergence Summit 2016 at the University of Minnesota. Here are our slides:

We enjoyed getting to do this, and the great questions and conversations both during our session and at lunch. We’d welcome any additional thoughts you have in the comments below.

Related Links:

It’s Time for #ScopeScope!

IMG_9793It’s 4:30 a.m. CST on March 1, and as I sit down to enjoy my reward for drinking the last of my eight glasses of MoviPrep® (and as I get ready to sit somewhere else in a few minutes!), I’m looking ahead to the #ScopeScope.

Starting in a little over three hours, Mayo Clinic will be broadcasting my colonoscopy on Periscope. We think it’s the first #ScopeScope, but we’re sure it’s the first time Mayo has done a live procedure broadcast to a general audience.

Please help us make that audience as large as possible, because our message is important:

  • Colorectal cancer is among the most preventable cancers with appropriate screening
  • Colonoscopy is not as unpleasant as you may have heard, and
  • Colonoscopy isn’t the only screening method, and the best screening test is the one that gets done.

Here are three ways you can help:

  1. On Facebook, go to the Mayo Clinic event we’ve created, indicate your attendance, and invite your friends. We will post the link to the live broadcast link when the #ScopeScope starts, which will be sometime between 8:45 and 9 a.m. EST (7:45-8 CST).
  2. On Twitter, follow the #ScopeScope hashtag. When you see the tweet announcing that we’re LIVE on Persicope, retweet it to your followers (and then be sure to join us for the broadcast!
  3. After the live broadcast, the archive will be available for 24 hours, so share the link on all of your social platforms (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) right away.

Gotta go…

Previewing the Mayo Clinic #ScopeScope

I’m getting a colonoscopy next Tuesday morning, and I hope it will encourage many others to get screened for colorectal cancer too.

Mayo Clinic will be broadcasting the procedure live on Periscope in an interactive event we’re calling the #ScopeScope.

I hope you’ll participate (the links at the bottom of this post give more info and three concrete ways you can help spread the word), but first some background:

  • Colorectal cancer is one of the leading cancer killers, claiming about 50,000 lives per year in the U.S. alone.
  • It’s also among the most preventable or curable cancers with appropriate screening. Finding and removing precancerous polyps keeps them from turning into cancer, and catching cancers earlier improves survival.
  • Colonoscopy is one of several good screening options.
  • Everyone over age 50 should be screened, and if you have a family history or other risk factors it should start earlier. Discuss timing with your doctor.

Why Periscope?

Periscope is a live video streaming mobile application owned by Twitter, and we’ve had a Mayo Clinic channel since June. If you’re not familiar with Periscope, here’s video from a broadcast I did yesterday, describing what we’re doing in the #ScopeScope:

With the Periscope mobile app (available for iOS or Android), you can comment and ask questions, provide feedback and share on other social networks.

You can still watch a Periscope broadcast without the app, but you can’t interact. So you’ll get the best experience if you install it.

Here are a few background links:

Three Concrete Ways You Can Help

  1. Go to the event page we’ve created on Facebook, indicate your attendance, and invite your friends. Especially those you know or suspect are 50 or older.
  2. Share this post on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn now, and
  3. Watch for the Tuesday morning announcements on Twitter and Facebook that the #ScopeScope is starting, and share those with your networks, too.

I welcome your ideas for how we can have the most impact through this project. Please leave your comments below, or share them by email through my contact form.