How Social Media is Changing Patient Care

Your patients tweet from your waiting room. They describes their symptoms on Facebook. They ask about that 'funny rash' on Quora. They looked you up on LinkedIn.

Your patients are engaging in social media --- are you?

Not just personally, but professionally - the expectations have changed. Medicine ultimately is a service industry, and like all service industries, the expectations of our customer, our patients, have changed. They are online and expect us to be as well. The question facing most practices is, to what degree? With practices stretched thin already managing work in the office, how can they devote resources to having an online presence?

These questions do not have simple answers, but like any medical problem you encounter, the first step is to gather more information. Think about your patient population - how active online are they in general? Clearly, there will be a big difference between a pediatrics practice and a geriatrics one. If your patient population is quite broad, another approach is to [drum roll] ask them! Many patients would be happy to let you know where they look for medical information and what ways they find convenient to communicate with your office.

As you have determine what your patients want, you also have to ask yourself how much are you willing to devote. In this day and age, being absent online is no longer an option. At a minimum, you should post basic information about your practice such as the address, telephone number, and office hours. I highly suggest that you have at least a static website that offers this information, and definitely make it accesible on sites that people use to find locations such as Google Maps, Bing Maps, and Yelp.

However, this post is about 'social' media, and static information is not very social. Look into creating  a presence on Facebook and Twitter. You will have to judge whether you want these channels to be more one-way, with patients sending information to you, versus two-way with you or your office actively responding. You also have to judge how 'medical' you want your communications to be, keeping confidentiality and liability issues in mind. Avoid discussing specific medical issues in these forums. However, they function great for communicating general health tips, answering general health questions, and providing specific office information such as hour changes or new medication / treatment options available. Images showing when preventative care should be performed, or basic management algorithms, can be very helpful for patients. If you are particularly intrepid, ask a patient with a 'success' story if you can share their story on your social site. Draw your patients into the conversation with you.

Social media is an unchartered territory for most physicians so don't fear - explore! Learn what kinds of pages and accounts work best on these sites. Try different types of comments and posts. Including engaging content that your patients/fans would want to share with each other. In the social media world, something being 'viral' is a good thing! Help your users catch the bug! Chart your own course in the social media waters. Your patients will benefit and sing your praises - online and off.

Can A Social Media Profile Be A Resume?

Thinking about applying for medical school? Residency? A scholarship, perhaps? Your online reputation may precede you. This guest post by Dr. Gregory Mackay explains some of the do's and don'ts of maintaining an online social media profile as a healthcare student and professional.

Social networking has become an inevitable part of our daily lives and although social media and healthcare privacy are not exactly two sides of the same coin, you need to be very careful about how you socialize because social behavior on social networking websites could have a significant contribution to make towards shaping your future career.

Source: FredCavazza.net

These social networking websites have grown by leaps and bounds (the code of conduct has also changed tremendously) over the last couple of years but so have the medical schools and universities who have already embraced social networking and made it a part of the learning curve. Most medical schools and universities have already got a defined set of guidelines that they expect their students to follow while socializing online.

Now, why is it important for medical students to “behave” themselves while socializing online? Social networking, as it used to be some 5to 7 years back, isn't only about having an online presence - it is now seriously considered as an identity replica by the corporate world which does not have enough time to go through background check reports and small details in a curriculum vitae - the only option they are left with is to take people on face value and that is what calls for “socially responsible behavior” on social networking websites. So, that actually translates to medical schools and universities creating a set of social media policies that can help inexperienced students have better profiles and the behavioral patterns on social media websites. Just warning them is not going to do the job because everyone would interpret the instructions differently - only a written set of guidelines is going to help them.

As a matter of fact the popularity of social media policies has also grown by leaps and bounds. More and more people have realized the benefits. But the million dollar question is “what needs to go into those policies”? Some of the key things that need to be integrated in social media policies include:

• The student should be selective about where he establishes a profile. His online presence should mirror his professional responsibilities and interests - he should never go overboard. 
• A student should remember that having profiles on online social networking websites does not make him a different person - he is the same professional and his behavior should match his professional profile. 
• He should be very selective about what he makes public and what information he keeps under wraps. 
• Students should understand that every online behavior can be recorded and monitored. It's best to think twice before displaying certain characters online. His behavior should in no way be able to tarnish his professional reputation. 
• A medical student also needs to understand that deceit and pretence are not supposed to be considered positive traits in health professionals and he should steer clear of such things while socializing online.

This actually needs to be taken very seriously because a study that was conducted in 2010 has clearly pointed to the fact that not less than 20% of residency pharmacy directors (employers) completely trust social media behavior while recruiting candidates. As a matter of fact, 89% of them also strongly agreed to the fact that the behavioral patterns of social media websites clearly define the identity and character of a candidate and that speaks volumes about the kind of professionalism that they have and also the kind of attitudes that they would display towards others.

There is another huge benefit offered by social media policies. A set of written guidelines is also going to make sure that the privacy of the patients remains intact and that does not jeopardize the careers of young medical professionals. It was found out in a study in 2010 that medical students not having a “respectable” social media behavioral pattern are more prone to diagnosing patient information on social media websites. That could be a dangerous thing and could seriously jeopardize the careers of young medical professionals.


Dr. Gregory J. Mackay is a board certified atlanta cosmetic surgeon by the 'American Board of Surgery' who practices for “The beauty of knowledge”

Social Media and Medicine: A Perfect Marriage?

This is a guest post by Natalia Zurek of Webctor.com regarding the use of social media in medicine.

Celebrities, non-profits and big businesses has discovered the virtual gold mine of social media, so why not the medical profession? It’s not only hospital administrators and doctors who could participate, but the patients themselves. This is the opinion of UK diabetes specialist David Kerr, MD and Lior Tamir, DDS, the founder and CEO of oLyfeMD. The writers and editors at Webctor.com also find the marriage of social media and medicine an intriguing possibility.

In an article for MedCrunch, Kerr and Tamir sketch out what they hope the future can hold for patients, doctors and social media. They foresee doctors and patients leaving established social media sites like Twitter and Facebook to start their own contributor driven websites.

How the Social Media Sites Would Work

Current social media sites, Facebook in particular, have problems keeping data of their members private. The first step in a medical-based social media site would have to be to ensure privacy for the users, especially the patients looking for advice. Security software is already available to protect a web-user’s privacy.

Patients can post their problems and an abbreviated version of their medical histories to the site. They could also do a daily diary entry of what it’s like to live with chronic conditions. The website software could then recommend pages of information specific to an individual patient’s health condition to the patient. Other site users could also comment and share their own experiences with the patient.

Doctors would have to go through  a screening process in order to post medical information onto the site. They would also act as fact-finders and point out any inaccuracies to patients, the community and to the webmaster. Patients can then vote on which doctor they prefer and become the site experts in certain topics, such as cancer or geriatric care.

Advantages for the Medical Industry

Both Kerr and Tamir caution the medical industry against expecting to make a lot of money from participating or supporting medical social media sites. But a social media medical site can still prove to be priceless. Medical workers can see treatments from the patients’ viewpoints. Pharmaceutical companies can see how their products work in the real world and what they need to focus their research and development on. Universities can see where there is the most public support for studies to invest time and personnel in. Clinical trials also would not have to be done in just one or two specific medical
buildings, but can whole or in part be done from holding “clinical trials” in the form of questionnaires on the website. Organizers of clinical medical trials can also post details of what they need in volunteer subjects and call for volunteers. Although there are websites listing current and forthcoming clinical trials, most people are completely unaware that these sites exist.

Advantages for the Patient

This Webctor.com writer sees many advantages for patients and their families through the use of a social media medical site. Many patients become isolated from other people and depressed because of their illness. Even connecting to others online is better than staying in bed all day wrapped in self-pity. Patients with the same medical conditions can share tips and tricks for how to cope with symptoms.

Patients can also learn how to better communicate with their doctors. Many patients do not realize that doctors and nurses are not mind-readers. They are extremely busy and can make mistakes. Patients can learn what information they need to give their doctors and better questions to ask their doctors in order to help heal.

This article was written by Natalia Zurek, a member of Webctor.com team.  It is a project, which aims to provide free accurate medical information and support patients, seeking help on the Internet.