Role of Social Media, SEM, and SEO in Medical Innovation

Charles D. Kelman, MD was an ophthalmologist, an entrepreneur, and a pioneer in cataract surgery. The Innovator’s Award is presented every year at the annual symposium for the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, and is designed to recognize ophthalmologists that emulate Dr. Kelman’s innovative spirit. The 2011 recipient of the Charles D. Kelman Innovator’s Award is Richard Lindstrom, MD, and the following is a summary of the acceptance lecture he delivered accompanied by an open invitation to discuss the role social media and search engine marketing will play in the continued pursuit of ophthalmic innovation.

2011 ASCRS Innovator Award Recipient

Dr. Lindstrom is the founder and attending surgeon of Minnesota Eye Consultants and Adjunct Professor Emeritus at the University of Minnesota Department of Ophthalmology. During his Innovator’s Lecture, he addressed the need for future entrepreneurs and innovators in the field of ophthalmology, and the current state of the cycle of innovation in the United States.

The Dying Cycle of Medical Innovation

While the innovative spirit is not dead, Dr. Lindstrom says it is stressed, and in need of its own reinvention. In the spirit of Dr. Kelman, Dr. Lindstrom says there exists a greater duty to patients than being eye care providers: ophthalmologists and medical providers in general must use their daily experiences to address unmet needs in their practice. Dr. Lindstrom believes that ignoring this inherent duty cultivated and passed down by innovators such as Dr. Kelman will lead to the ultimate demise of medical innovation.

Biggest Roadblock to the Art of Innovation

One of the biggest roadblocks that exists today and in the future of innovation in the field of ophthalmology is the pathway to developing and introducing new ideas and concepts. When year’s pass as ideas stagnate in the approval process, Dr. Lindstrom says many companies are beginning to take their ideas to the European Union, where a product, device, or procedure need only to demonstrate reasonable, predictable, and transparent results to receive approval.

The Role of Social Media, SEM, and SEO

In his Innovator’s Lecture, Dr. Lindstrom expressed the need for the FDA to play catch-up, urging the US to become more like the EU as the two begin to harmonize their systems of innovation. Our question for Dr. Lindstrom and other innovators like him throughout the medical field, is twofold: first, what role will social media play in the future of medical innovation; and, how can a social media and search engine marketing firm like Rosemont Media inspire and support the cycle of innovation?

Visit the Rosemont Media Facebook page, or follow us @RosemontMedia on Twitter, and tell what you think about the current state of medical innovation, and what role you see social media, search engine marketing, and SEO playing in the reinvention of that innovative spirit.