The Health Digital Check-Up traditionally hasn’t been the place for politics, but given that a good part of the digital health team has ties to D.C., it’s hard to ignore events like last Thursday’s bipartisan summit on health reform.

Even though the summit was going on just a few blocks from Edelman’s Washington, D.C. office (seriously!), it wasn’t like any of us had direct access to watch the proceedings in person. However, wonks, interested parties and political enthusiasts had many different avenues – including in the digital space – to watch and analyze the event, President Obama’s proposal and the reactions.
To give you an idea of the different ways last week’s debate and summit went digital, here are five different ways online media played a part in extending the summit.

The Debate, Live on YouTube

Throughout Thursday, the entire health reform summit was broadcast live on the White House’s YouTube channel, and the videos have been archived there for continual access. In addition to making the video available online, the opportunity to watch the summit on this channel was promoted through e-communication sent to supporters and a banner across the top of the site all day long.

C-SPAN + Twitter

C-SPAN is hardly the flashiest network around – basic, essential, but hardly flashy. Yet for this summit, cspan.org turned the summit into a demonstration of the power of its online – and over air – community. The summit’s “action” streamed on the cable network’s Web page, and, at the same time, those who logged in could also see a Twitter stream moving constantly with comments about the summit.

Bloggers React

There was no shortage of commentary from online pundits when it came to discussing the health reform summit. Usual political gurus like Nate Silver discussed the role the President took in the legislation and questioned whether or not anything new came from the proceedings; there were conversely partisan voices calling out extremes described by Democratic participants. In the health blogger space, it was just as divided: one primary care physician wondered how things would be different this time around, while Bob Doherty of the ACP Advocate Blog wondered what the Republicans may want in a reform bill.

Coverage Lives On

This is by no means a new trend in terms of the digital channel, but the fact is that broadcast and other traditional news coverage around the health reform summit could take a new life online. Comments from the pundits from any of the cable news stations (or Comedy Central) will likely be the center point for much of the discussion. An interesting example came the morning after the summit from media bloggers noting how Jon Stewart, the normally critical Daily Show host, was fairly complimentary of the efforts of the summit.

Sources for More News

There will be other stories that come and go – whether health or policy related – in the next few days. If you want to keep a handle on the follow-up directly related the health care summit, there are plenty of places online to turn. Twitter conversation seems to be gathering most around the hashtag #hcrsummit, and for a few bloggers to add to your feed, Ezra Klein of the Washington Post and the team over at The New Health Dialogue will help provide you up to the minute information wherever you are.