Benefits of Social Media States Healthcare

Many social media tools are available for health care professionals (HCPs), including social networking platforms, blogs, microblogs, wikis, media-sharing sites, and virtual reality and gaming environments.These tools can be used to improve or enhance professional networking and education, organizational promotion, patient care, patient education, and public health programs. 

Social media provide HCPs with tools to share information, to debate health care policy and practice issues, to promote health behaviors, to engage with the public, and to educate and interact with patients, caregivers, students, and colleagues. HCPs can use social media to potentially improve health outcomes, develop a professional network, increase personal awareness of news and discoveries, motivate patients, and provide health information to the community.

Physicians most often join online communities where they can read news articles, listen to experts, research medical developments, consult colleagues regarding patient issues, and network. There they can share cases and ideas, discuss practice management challenges, make referrals, disseminate their research, market their practices, or engage in health advocacy. A growing minority of physicians also uses social media to communicate directly with patients to augment clinical care.

A survey of more than 4,000 physicians conducted by the social media site QuantiaMD found that more than 90% of physicians use some form of social media for personal activities, whereas only 65% use these sites for professional reasons. Nearly a third of physicians have reported participating in social networks. However, both personal and professional use of social media by physicians is increasing.

Unlike physicians, pharmacists have been relatively slow to adopt socialmedia. Much of the growth in the professional use of social media among this group appears to involve pharmacist-specific social networks.Surveys have shown that many pharmacists use Facebook. Although this use is most often for personal communications, more than 90 pages on Facebook are related to the pharmacy profession, such as the Pharmacists Interest Page, the American Pharmacists Association, and the Cynical Pharmacist. Only 10% of pharmacists use Twitter, and a search for “pharmacist” on LinkedIn identified 274,981 profiles.

As social networking has evolved, medically focused professional communities have been established.These networks are often private and protected from nonmembers, such as the lay public and even members of other health professions. Funding sources for these sites vary, with financial support often being provided by professional associations, advertising or data sales, research funding, and pharmaceutical companies.

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Sermo is a “physician-only” social networking community that verifies the credentials of new members during registration. Physicians representing 68 specialties in all 50 states gather on this site to network, to discuss treatment options, and to query peers for expert advice. As of April 2014, Sermo boasted a U.S. membership of 260,000 physicians, most of whom use pseudonyms for anonymity. Sermo consists primarily of a large message board on which physicians create topics for discussion. It also provides a rating system by which doctors rank posts on the site on the basis of perceived credibility.

Doximity is a newer “physician-only” social networking community that offers text and images that are compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which allows point-of-care information crowdsourcing. As of 2013, more than 100,000 physicians and students were members. Doximity uses a national database to create “placeholder” accounts with demographic and contact information for all U.S. physicians. Therefore, although only 12% of U.S. physicians are active members of Doximity, nearly 100% can be messaged through the network.

Social media is one of the most talked about disruptions to marketing in decades, but how is it impactful for the health care industry? In a generation that is more likely to go online to answer general health questions then ask a doctor, what role does social media play in this process? Let’s dive into some meaningful statistics and figures to clearly illustrate how social media has impacted health care in the last few years.