A few years ago at a conference I sat next to the head of the AIDS research organization AMFAR. Our conversation was about just how tough it is to get medical and public health information to people who really need it. We talked about all kinds of outreach ideas, but neither of us had a big “aha.”
Well here is the aha. The Hollywood Health & Society program, part of the Lear Center at University of Southern California, provides free medical and health information to television and film screenwriters and producers. The goal: make sure that television shows and movies accurately convey health facts.
Physicians and medical experts donate their time — ah, the allure of show business — and writers find fascinating story lines in the realities of medicine.
People watching networks like Telemundo, soaps like General Hospital, All My Children, Desperate Housewives; cop shows like Law & Order, and the fictitious television doctors like Dr. Greg House, are not just being entertained, they’re getting accurate, helpful information about all kinds of issues, from AIDS and organ transplants to child abuse and strokes.
There’s been so much marketing buzz about product placement on television shows. It nice to hear about television also serving as a public health educator, albeit in some very cool story lines.

Most companies tell employees what NOT to Tweet about, but Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com, suggests to employees that they Tweet about these three things:



