For the past two years we have published the Top #HITsm Contributors list to recognize top social media voices in health IT. After much deliberation and debate, we recently decided that 2011 will be the last year the list is published.
Erica Olenski and Jon Mertz created the #HITsm list in 2010 to help foster a sense of community among health IT professionals interested in engaging one another using this fairly new “Twitter thing.” They hoped to introduce health IT Twitter contributors so they can engage in dialogue that helps advance the profession and foster new ideas, including the occasional “light bulb moment” that true learners and explorers are always looking to find, which kind of reminds me of the this quote:
“All who wander are not lost.” — J.R.R. Tolkein
That particular Tolkein quote regularly comes to mind when I discuss the benefit of using social media for professional development. True online as in real life, curious individuals share many traits: a belief in discovering truth and a sense of pride when something is learned that they can share to the benefit of other like-minded people. Doing otherwise would be akin to sticking their head in the sand, and there are far too many interesting things to learn about life for that type of resignation.
Why stop the awards?
Because there are simply too many engaging #HITsm contributors to list. We believe that placing a value or a score on any one individual or corporate brand devalues those not on the list, and starting a nomination-based system would just duplicate Michael Planchart’s fantastic efforts with his #HIT100 list.
Many thanks to everyone who has made the #HITsm hashtag such a valuable and consistent Twitter resource for all things health IT. See you all online.
