As an analyst, I am interested in how people access information.

My focus is social media. And my geographical location is Europe. But I can’t limit my study of how information is accessed to either of these facts. I’d miss too much.

I’d lose insights into what makes buzz valuable. As discussed in earlier blogs, offline events impact online buzz.  For example, word-of-mouth in English is limited to neither a national nor a linguistic audience.

My most recent research into buzz and its origins has been in the realm of TV medical dramas.

Why? A European Union proposed directive may open up the European market for medical goods and services. According to the Directive, an EU citizen will soon be able to mail order or even travel to another EU state to purchase a medical good or service. European health care consumers are encouraged to do this when in need of a medical good or service that they feel is not available or not adequately provided in their own state. The EU citizen’s home health policy must then reimburse the citizen for the cost of the procedure and the price of related medications. This at the same time that marketing regulations are changing

Citizens in the EU will have more choices when it comes to individual health care. But how will they know about all the different options available to them in medical care? In reading more and more forums and blogs, I noticed that the ideas and information accessed by potential cross-border European health care consumers came from (largely United States produced) medical dramas.

House is a particular cross-border favorite. The drama features the British actor Hugh Laurie as a sarcastic curmudgeon who also happens to be a brilliant doctor. Laurie plays the infamous Dr. House of the drama’s title. Each episode follows House and his team of diagnosticians as they pursue the cause and then the cure of an obscure disease. Viewers are attracted to the show by the drama’s colorful characters, but viewers leave each episode, buzz suggests, with more than just a sense of having been entertained.

Viewers leave with information. Viewers leave with information about possible medical conditions, medical procedures, and medical knowledge. Viewers leave, ultimately, with modified expectations about what kind of health care they can and should expect for their family, friends, and themselves.

I enjoy the idea of an American medical drama starring a British theater actor influencing Spanish and Dutch ideas of modern medicine. As an analyst, I also enjoy following the medications and procedures introduced, and watching the online buzz coalesce around specific ideas and procedures. I am interested to see how this is going to interact with the new options available to the European health care consumers and producers.

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