The tips, which you can read for yourself below, consist of simple, common-knowledge stuff.  Still, their prominent placement could help drill them into people’s heads, and the link to Flu.gov may also come in handy.

Then there’s the flu shot finder to consider.  By sticking it in the search results (and on Flu.gov and the American Lung Association site to boot), Google will no doubt remind lots of people to get vaccinated.

Google should be able to make the vaccination process less of a hassle, too, since it’s more or less eliminated the risk that whatever Walgreens or Rite Aid a person stops at won’t have the shots in stock.

Finally, Roni Zeiger, Chief Health Strategist at Google, announced one more important detail on the Official Google.org Blog: "This year’s flu vaccine protects against the three viruses that research suggests will be most common, including the H1N1 virus, so officials do not expect the need for multiple vaccines."

Good luck staying healthy this flu season.

The website asks users a series of questions to determine how serious their flu symptoms are based on the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. Users have the option to share their information with their doctor, as well as family members.

The site also provides a set of online tools to help doctors monitor their patients’ symptoms, make treatment decisions, and manage their practices’ patient flow.

AMA-Flu-Help

"With both seasonal flu and H1N1 circulating this year, physician offices are already busier than normal," said AMA Board Member Mary Anne McCaffree, MD.

"This resource allows patients to assess their symptoms and determine when to seek care for themselves or their loved ones. To prevent the spread of influenza, this site also helps determine when it is safe for those who have been sick to return to work or school."

AMAfluhelp.org can help people assess their own flu symptoms or those of a family member, and offer advice about seeking treatment. There is also a tool for pregnant women to evaluate their need for a flu shot and for all users to monitor any post-vaccine related symptoms. The site can also generate a doctor’s note when it is safe to go back to work or school.

The AMA says as the site develops it will add a number of applications that support patient/doctor communication, reduce redundant testing and allows for continuous  monitoring of patients with complex health conditions.

The new website now features a new H1N1 Flu Self-Evaluation guide similar to the tool Microsoft launched on Wednesday. In addition the site has a new Flu Myths and Facts section, which provides people with the latest information about the flu such as people will not need to get two doses of the H1N1 vaccine because "scientists initially thought that two doses might be required, information from clinical trials has since demonstrated the H1N1 vaccine works faster than we expected and works well against the H1N1 virus."

Kathleen Sebelius,
Health & Human Services Secretary

"Flu.gov is a one-stop clearinghouse for the latest news about the flu," said Secretary Sebelius.  "These new resources on flu.gov will help individuals get critical information on how to protect themselves and their families from the H1N1 virus. They will also help us to get accurate information out into the public realm so people know what the facts are about the flu."

The H1N1 Flu Self-Evaluation guide will give people more information about what they can do to take care of themselves, prevent the spread of the flu to other family members, and identify the warning signs of more serious flu symptoms that require medical attention.

The H1N1 Flu Self-Evaluation guide does not collect identifiable information in any manner and is completely anonymous. Organizations providing public health education, blogs, and the media can add it to their sites.

"One way that we can help relieve some of the burden on the states and local providers this flu season is by helping people understand what the warning signs are when it comes to the flu," said Secretary Sebelius.

"In addition to the Self-Evaluation guide, we have also created some handy one-page information sheets called Flu Essentials that people can share with family, friends and neighbors."
 

Last year Google launched its Flu Trends tool in the United States, and has now taken the opportunity to expand it into 16 additional countries. The site is also now available in 37 different languages.

"By tracking the popularity of certain Google search queries, we are able to estimate the level of flu, in near real-time," says Google. "While some traditional flu surveillance systems may take days or weeks to collect and release data, Google search queries can be counted immediately. Google Flu Trends provides an additional surveillance tool that may help public health officials and the public make more informed decisions about preparing for the flu season."

"In the past year, we’ve expanded our coverage to include Mexico, New Zealand and Australia and have continued to see a good correspondence between our estimates and official flu activity data. In fact, our analysis of last season shows that Google Flu Trends had a close 0.92 correlation with official U.S. flu data," the company adds.

Countries where Flu Trends is now available include: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, and the US.

The H1N1 Response Center’s self-assessment tool is licensed from medical and public health experts at Emory University. The service helps people determine if their symptoms could be caused by the H1N1 flu virus and provides recommendations about what they can do next.

"By providing an at-home tool that can help users evaluate whether they need to see a provider before they head to the hospital, we can encourage those who are severely ill or at risk for serious illness to contact their doctor, and reassure everyone else that it is safe and prudent to recover at home," said Dr. Arthur Kellermann, professor of emergency medicine and an associate dean of the Emory School of Medicine.

"This will reduce the number of people needlessly exposed to H1N1 influenza in crowded clinic and ER waiting rooms, and allow doctors and nurses to focus their attention on those who need them most."

People who decide to seek medical attention can connect their self-assessment results with Microsoft Health Vault, which stores personal health information online.

Google has introduced related services such as its Flu Trends which provides information on the latest flu activity and an iPhone app for swine flu called "Outbreaks Near Me."
 

Creating a blog and posting frequently for a month – and then letting it slowly die is sadly common for corporate blogging initiatives.  Clearly starting a blog is easier than maintaining one.  The reasons are relatively well known … sometimes it is a lack of commitment or leadership, other times it is simply that the group blog is not considered a priority or is not clearly outlined as a job related responsibility of an individual or a group of individuals.  The least understood reason, however, is that perhaps the blog should never have been created as a permanent effort in the first place. 

Having had our fair share of shorter term blogging experiences for client engagements (including one current one for the Pandemic Flu blog which will end tomorrow and our recent live blogging experience for the CCR event in London) – there are a host of lessons we have learned about the role of short term blogging and when to use it effectively for marketing and promotion.  For reference, I consider a short term blog to be a blog that is intended to live and be actively maintained for anything less than 3 months (not including time when it might be live but abandoned).  Below is a guide to help you determine when to use a short term blog and tips for doing it effectively.

When to Use a Short Term Blog:

1. Situation #1: Event Blogging - This is by far the most common situation for short term blogging and involves creating a blog either for live blogging an event or to create anticipation in advance of an event.  Typically these blogs are run by the organizers or main sponsors of an event and include voices from participants and speakers from the event.  On a non-business level, this could include blogs launched to get ready for a family reunion or any other type of personal event.
2. Situation #2: Product or Service Launch Blogging - As it sounds, this type of blogging involves sharing insights, backstories, or any other type of information to help inform customers and enthusiasts as well as build a buzz about a soon to be launched product or service.  This type of blogging can also be a great way to solicit feedback in advance of a big launch. 
3. Situation #3: Marketing Campaign Blogging - Efforts in this category range from short term blogs as part of online sites or microsites that are launched for marketing campaigns.  Blogs in this category typically allow for real time updates, more interaction and add a conversational element to what might otherwise be a static site.  We are working on several of these projects at the moment, and they can work extremely well for engaging consumers.

How to Make Your Short Term Blog Successful:

1. Be clear about the "run dates" - Whenever a big new theater production comes to town, it always comes with run dates.  You know when the show will premiere and you know when it will leave town.  This creates an expectation, and though it can often be changed with "extended runs" (and often is if a show is popular) – theater goers usually know what to expect.  A short term blog should be treated in the same way.
2. Promote the fact that you are posting on a bell curve – With any short term blogging effort, you are likely to see posts and activity resemble the traditional bell curve of activity.  This is particularly true when short term blogging happens around an event.  Regardless, the fact that there may be one post per week until the time of the "main event" where you have 6 posts per day is ok.  In fact, it can even be a selling point if used as an incentive to get readers to return at a particular time when activity on the blog is likely to be at a peak (during an event, close to product/service launch, or another relevant moment).
3. Get ready to move in real time - A short term blog is something like a sprint, where momentum is critical to keep up because you only have a limited time to make it work.  In a sprint, you need to move fast and be ready to actively monitor and engage users in real time.  This means approving comments fast, responding to queries quickly and paying attention to the blog 24/7.  When it comes to short term blogging, get ready to live and breath everything about the blog during the time it is live.
4. Turn off your comments when you stop listening - It may seem counterintuitive as a recommendation in the context of social media, but if you won’t be listening, turn off your comments.  In an ideal situation, its important to note that you should never stop listening, but the reality is usually less than ideal.  Think of it as the equivalent of the "gone fishing" sign that hangs outside local stores if the owner had to step out.  Of course, this will produce frustration from some users who expect to be able to comment forever … but when it comes to short term blogging, if you are going to abandon the blog or leave it in a static state – you need to act like it.
5. Have a good exit strategy – You always need to have an exit strategy.  Most likely, your exit strategy for the short term blog will go in one of two directions.  Either the blog will run its course and then live on as a static site but not be actively maintained anymore, or you will transition the blog to a more permanent entity.  There is no single right answer for what to do with a short term blog … but you may likely find that the smartest way of leveraging the initial traffic you build for the blog is to convert it into a more permanent online property.  A good exit strategy means knowing when to abandon and when to transition.

If you have recently launched or worked on a short term blogging effort, how did your experience compare to these notes?  Any other lessons to share?

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The Pandemic Flu Leadership blog opened recently, as the Cabinet-level HHS decided to open the question of preparing for a flu pandemic to a variety of leaders from the business, health care, civic, and faith communities.

Their summit will last for five weeks, with a different topic for each week leading to the leadership forum HHS will conduct on June 13th. Diva Marketing blogger Toby Bloomberg applauded the selection of a particular participant on the Flu Pandemic blog:

I was delighted to see Nedra Klein Weinreich among the prestigious experts. Nedra brings a wealth of social marketing and social media marketing experience to the conversation. Her first post addresses both topics and ask critical questions including how to best use social media in times of a public healthcare crisis.

• What are some of the methods we can use to reach each of the audiences with our messages? (e.g., online social networks, blogs, Oprah, school district newsletters)
• Who are the spokespeople that are seen as most credible by each audience? (e.g., local officials, doctors, peers)
• Who are the partners that we need to hook up with in order to best reach each audience? (e.g., doctors, “mommy bloggers,” media organizations)

Live blogging will happen on June 13th during the forum, with the following weeks presenting a report out of the event, and a discussion on making a successful move forward with pandemic preparedness.

From the report… The information will be used to help create buffer zones around an infected flock and contain the H5N1 strain when it makes its U.S. appearance. Of interest, The H5N1 virus that has infected birds and chickens in Asia, Africa and Europe and caused more than 120 deaths there is expected to arrive in North America this summer via migrating birds flying from Asia to Alaska and southwards.

Related to this, those of you interested in seeing the spread of Bird Flu via Google Earth, you may be interested in this post on the Keyhole BBS Finally, for more on the bird flu I suggest you also check out this blog.

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Anything Geospatial: Tracking developments affecting GIS, geospatial technologies, location-based services, mapping, google earth and google maps. Published by the creator and editor of GISuser.com & LBSzone.com