Hello Twitterverse. I’m looking forward to reaching out to you and talking about the great work happening at @hhsgov twitter.com/Sebelius/statu…
— Kathleen Sebelius (@Sebelius) March 11, 2013
She sent her first tweet just after noon, and already Kathleen Sebelius (@Sebelius) has 2,000-plus followers.
The secretary of U.S. Health and Human Services is the latest federal health official to join Twitter and follows in the footsteps of colleagues Dr. Tom Frieden (@DrFriedenCDC), the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Dr. Francis Collins (@NIHDirector), director of the National Institutes of Health.
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She says she will use the account to share some of the “great work” happening at HHS, which has over the past few years run a string of open government initiatives to provide more transparency and access to its data and information. We hope she’ll actively share new ways HHS is innovating and working to keep that momentum going.
We see she’s already following lots of health organizations, initiatives and officials, but might we suggest a few hashtags and users sparking conversation that she might find insightful? For starters, #nhssm and #hcsmca host conversations about how the healthcare communities in the UK and Canada, respectively, are using social media. There’s also #hcldr, where weekly chats for healthcare leaders focus on topics such as alignment, access to care and patient experience.
As for who to follow, she’s already got some of the big government players including Michelle Obama (@FLOTUS) and National Coordinator for Health IT Farzad Mostashari (@Farzad_ONC). We’d also recommend these health company execs, these outspoken e-patients and supporters, and these other powerful female voices in healthcare.
Speaking of powerful female voices in healthcare, we hope her move will inspire some of the other leaders under the HHS umbrella to join the conversation. Marilyn Tavenner? Carolyn Clancy? I’m not holding my breath for this one, but — Margaret Hamburg?
[Photo from @Sebelius]
