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| Figure 1. An image of ProMED-mail's logo. |
The site is constantly updated with reliable news about human, animal, and plant health issues worldwide. In order to provide reliable and accurate information, a group of disease experts reviews and investigates reports and notifications made about disease outbreaks. Since updates are constantly monitored, ProMED-mail encourages people that are exterior to health and biomedical professions to send in reports as well. This site allows for constant updates by subscribers similar to Wikipedia, however it removes the aspects of unreliability by having the site and reports monitored by professionals. As we have learned Wikipedia is an informative location in which to start research however it is not reliable in all cases, so viewers has to check their facts. ProMED-mail does the checking for its subscribers so they can rely on the information on the site in order to start proactive dissemination of knowledge and action plans. The site could potentially us LinkedIn as a resource to do background checks on their subscribers, who have LinkedIn accounts. LinkedIn could allow ProMED-mail to see if their subscribers are knowledgeable in the area in which they are providing information based on their current or previous employment.
However there is one issue I see with this site, which is such public access could allow for potential misinterpretations of posted reports. For example, the ProMED-mail allows for a stream of reliable disease reports to be made, which could cause undue fear to occur if people were to interpret these disease outbreaks as occurring at pandemic proportions or as new pathogenic strains. In order to prevent this ProMED-mail has to be professional about the way in which they present the facts about diseases in order to dampen the potential for unnecessary fear. Professional writing means providing clear and concise facts on a topic which is accessible to a diverse array of people. Also not using jargon, but words that will not create ambiguity when read by the public is important. I think that after reading some of ProMED-mail's reports they are very professional and allow for readers to understand exactly where the outbreaks are occurring and the specific circumstance regarding that report.
ProMED-mail is a great example of how social communication mediums can be used to spread and expand knowledge on particular topics for the benefit of the world. Especially in situations where there are pandemic diseases that are spreading globally. The site allows researchers and epidemiologists the ability to finds out everything they can about the pathogen as quickly as possible. Social media allows for quick coagulation of knowledge from all over the world and ProMED-mail is taking advantage of this collection of knowledge. There are many other websites that are also trying to take advantage of these forms of communication. Jenn Wheeler has another great example on her blog about how the Edmonton Human Society (EHS) is using Twitter and Facebook to distribute knowledge about issues related to animal health and pet topics, specifically the pit bull dog breed. As the world moves forward into an era of online directed communication, businesses and associations will have to become connected with services such as Twitter, Blogger, and Facebook in order to reach their target demographic.
References
Fig. 1. ProMED-mail, the Program for Monitoring Emerging Disease. (2010). ProMED-mail, Facebook. [digital image]. Retrieved April 3, 2012. From Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/photo.phpfbid=424486114728&set=a.101 50103826699729.282255.67404479728&type=3&theater
