My Experience Being a Judge for the Social Health Network Awards

I had the great privilege of acting as a judge for the Social Health Awards. Working in just one of many categories in these awards, I looked at how well the nominated Health Leaders were able to utilize social media to bring awareness to their condition and help both patients and caregivers deal with it. I must say that it was a very humbling experience. These folks ranged from parents who lost children to those with devastating and debilitating diseases, one of which I suffer from.

What being a Social Health Network judge meant to me

I had to dig deep into their entire social media presence and try to parse out slight differences that perhaps made a greater impact. These were just the finalists. Someone before me had to go through all the nominations and produce these few as doing the most complete job of getting their message across and supplying as much help as possible.

I have been advocating for hATTR Amyloidosis, my family's disease, for many years. But I am old and have not kept up with the expanding world of social media and the good it can do, the help it can bring. This large lesson in humility only makes me want to learn and get more deeply involved. To become savvy in the major social media platforms and be able to use them legitimately. I want my story to have a longer reach so that I can open a dialogue with so many others around the world. We may not share the same mutation, but we share the same disease.

Discovering different approaches to health advocacy

So, there I was, amazement. These folks each did such a superb job, touching every aspect of their mission. Some were patients, some caregivers, but all of them were fully immersed and dedicated to what they were trying to do.

In our world today, it is refreshing to find so many that only want to do good. They were each able to utilize many aspects of social media that fit their personalities. They did not all do it the same way but used different appropriate platforms to get their messages out there. I found myself getting jazzed about diseases or conditions I had never heard of before. There I was, wishing I could help financially or had the energy to volunteer. That is inspiring.

How to evaluate patient advocates

I had to do a ranking. This was challenging for me because each of them deserved top billing. Each of them deserved the prize. But there could be only one. So, I had to dig deeper.

Through my own advocacy work, I know that all diseases are important and no one condition is more important than another. I then looked at the means by which they got their message out. Such a wide variety of social media platforms. So how did they go above and beyond the norm and be creative about the use of their message? This is where I could parse out subtle differences. A couple of nominees went outside the bounds of social media. Then I had my answer.

How I made my decisions

I had to judge them on three criteria. These criteria were the "fit" of the Award, their use of social media, and their overall information sharing and engagement.

No criteria had more weight than another. So, I went through each candidate's record again and made my choices. I was only one of many judges in this final and am sure we all did the research and produced our own conclusions. I tried my best not to let any biases and gut feelings become involved. All of these folks were deserving of the recognition that their dedication, drive, and love produced, giving superior knowledge and opportunity to those whom they were reaching.

The online health advocacy space is much larger than we realize, and we need to encourage many more folks to become involved.

Editor's note: This article was written by Greg Schwarz and originally appeared on Health Union's ATTR Amyloidosis community.