2011 AHLA Annual Meeting: How to Use Social Media with @BobCoffield

Welcome How to Use Social Media session students and others.

I hope you enjoyed my presentation during the afternoon health care social media sessions at the 2011 American Health Lawyers Association Annual Meeting in Boston. The health care social media sessions this afternoon were a great introduction to a variety of practical and legal issues surrounding the world of social media and its impact on the health care industry.

Now it is time for you to do your "out of the classroom" social media assignment using the SOCIAL MEDIA bucket list. Click on the linked Google Doc and get started. Good luck!

Below is a copy of the written materials from today's session which were posted here using Scribd. If you want to review my Prezi slides from my presentation watch it below and then go explore Prezi. 

If you have any questions send me a Tweet at @BobCoffield. Follow along with the tweets from the AHLA Annual Meeting at #AHLABoston. David Harlow (@HealthBlawg) also set up a Cover It Live Twitter feed for the Annual Meeting tweets. Thanks for attending the session.

How to Use Social by @BobCoffield (AHLA Annual Mtg 2011) on Prezi

How to Use Social Media (AHLA Annual Mtg - Coffield)

AHLA Boston "TWEETup"

Plans are set for a "TWEETup" during the American Health Lawyers Association 2011 Annual Meeting next week in Boston. All registered health lawyers are welcome along with other Boston area Twitter friends, Boston's Health 2.0 community, health care social media aficionados, and anyone else interested in the intersection of social media and the law.

Come join us at the #AHLABoston TWEETup on Tuesday, June 28 starting around 5:30pm at the BrasserieJO bar located across from the Prudential Center at The Colonnade Hotel, 120 Huntington Avenue. The BrasserieJO is located down Huntington Avenue near the Boston Marriott Copley Place, the location of the annual meeting.

Check out the TwtVite set up by David Harlow at HealthBlawg and RSVP that you will be attending. Help us spread the word.

The TWEETup follows an afternoon of health care social media and the law sessions held as a part of the AHLA Annual Meeting. For full details of the sessions and registration information check out the AHLA Annual Meeting schedule here (PDF version).The sessions run from 2pm - 5:30pm and will include:

A Legal Ethics Safety Line for Health Lawyers Online: How to Practice Safe Social Networking
Alan S. Goldberg (@GoldbergLawyer), Annie Hsu

E-Discovery Litigation
Gary L. Kaplan (@Gary_L_Kaplan), Joshua P. Kubicki (@JKubicki)

Cutting the PowerPoint Clutter: Using Zen-Like Visuals for more Compelling and Memorable Presentations
Susan Peterson

Should Health Lawyers Use Social Media?
David Harlow (@HealthBlawg)

HIPAA Privacy Issues in Social Media
Jodi Goldstein Daniel (@JodiDaniel), Daniel S. Goldman (@danielg280)

How to Use Social Media
Robert L. Coffield (@BobCoffield), David Harlow (@HealthBlawg), Gary L. Kaplan (@Gary_L_Kaplan)

Triaging Social Media in the Healthcare Workplace: Assessment, Analysis and Action
Mark W. Peters

A special thanks to @HealthBlawg for helping find the location for the TWEETup. Thanks to all the AHLA health lawyer and others spreading the word about the tweetup. Be sure to follow @HealthLawyers and use the AHLA Annual Meeting hashtag: #AHLABoston.

NLRB: Employees Protected Concerted Activity Extends to Faceboook and Social Media

Out of Connecticut comes an interesting case involving the use of social media in the workplace and its collision with employee protected concerted activity and employee freedom to associate without fear of employer retaliation under the National Labor Relations Act. The New York Times article, Company Accused of Firing Over Facebook Post, provides good background and details of the facts involved in the case.

American Medical Response of Connecticut, Inc. and International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 443, Case No. 34-CA-12576 (NRLB - Region 34), involves a complaint filed against American Medical Response for firing an emergency medical technician for among other things violating the company's policy of negatively depicting the company on Facebook or other social media sites. American Medical Response had denied the labor board's allegations and claims that the employee was discharged on various other grounds. The complaint contains the full language of the employer social media policies involved in the matter.

For those unfamiliar with the National Labor Relations Act, "protected concerted activity" is an employee right under the National Labor Relations Act that protects employees from employer retaliation for discussing working conditions. The National Labor Relations Act provides employees the right to associate together to improve working conditions, self organize, assist labor organizations and bargain collectively. The Act applies to activities by union and non-union employees.

This will be a fascinating case to watch to see how the new world of social media communication, connection, and association will be applied in the context of existing employee rights under the National Labor Relations Act. Similar protections may also be provided to employees who report issues to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Employers who have implemented social media policies that restrict the rights of employees to utilize social media tools and website should review their policies to assess whether or not the policy unnecessarily restricts the rights of employees to associate and discuss their rights to discuss union related issues, wages, working conditions, and other rights protected by the Act.

AHLA Connections: Legal Implications of Health Care Social Media

The current issue of the American Health Lawyers Association's Connections magazine features an article I co-authored with fellow AHLA health lawyer, Jody Joiner, on the impact of social media use in health care.

The article, Risky Business: Treating Tweeting the Symptoms of Social Media (PDF version), is featured in the March 2010 issue of AHLA Connections (Vol.14, No. 3, March 2010), a health lawyer magazine for the health and life sciences law community.

We provide background context on the use of social media tools by health care providers, address why we think health lawyers need to understand social media, and explore some of the legal implications as social media and the law intersect. The article ends with practical guidance to health care providers and organizations on implementing policies emphasizing the appropriate use of social media.

You can peruse the complete digital edition of the March 2010 AHLA Connections (Vol. 14, No. 3, March 2010). AHLA members should also check out the article in this issue on the recently launch Health Law Wiki. Great to see AHLA adding a wiki resource for members to share their expertise and experience in the complex and ever changing health care legal and regulatory world.

Special thanks to the AHLA Connections staff for allowing Jody and I the opportunity to write the article and for their great editorial assistance.