Social Media

Healthcare obstacles

It’s almost cliché to say that the American healthcare system is changing. But the reality is that the pace of care delivery transformation will speed up in 2013 with technology, consumerism and the Affordable Care Act. All these factors will merge on a sector that today represents one-fifth of the economy.[read more]

STD help

Discussing a sexually transmitted disease (STD) with a partner or potential partner can be awkward and embarrassing. How do you approach the subject? What do you expect the outcome to be? Now, new high-tech prevention tools can help. One tool is the website Qpid.me.[read more]

twitter/shutterstock

One of the most exciting changes that social media has brought to healthcare and medicine is that the emerging tool breaks the barrier for information that was only available to highly trained medical professionals. Now, by including a hashtag, anyone can be a participants of a medical meeting.[read more]

mobile health apps / photo credit

How to find the fitness app that best suits your needs? We compared features, user ratings, and affordability to bring you the top five iPhone apps for tracking your health—because we think seeing your progress makes it easier to stick to your goals.[read more]

patient support group / shutterstock

On May 8th, @Bonnycastle took the reins and moderated the hcsmca chat. Together we discussed the relationship between physicians and patients support groups. As an introduction, she wrote the blog post "Should medical doctors advocate for patient support groups?"[read more]

PAO performed at Spire Bushey

Very recently in the UK, Spire Bushey Hospital in Watford used Twitter and Vine to tweet and video live surgery in the OR for educational purposes. Mr Aresh Hashemi-Nejad, an orthopaedic surgeon at Spire Bushey, performed a Periacetabular Osteotomy (PAO), a complex hip operation.[read more]

doctor-patient relationship / shutterstock

Pathcare is a powerful, personal and private social network for a physician and her patients that provides three things to reduce stress and improve the patient-doctor relationship: private messaging, personalized updates, and physician branding.[read more]

social media & doctors / shutterstock

The intersection of social media and patient interaction can be busy and confusing. “Online technologies present both opportunities and challenges to professionalism,” the American College of Physicians (ACP) observes. A new position paper offers these primary points for physician guidance.[read more]

social media tools (photo: Jason A Howie)

With so much to keep track of when it comes to your social media campaigns, it can feel a bit overwhelming if you aren't using the best social media tools for your medical practice marketing. Here are some resources that can help consolidate all of the social media metrics for you.[read more]

HCSM/shutterstock

A step-by-step guide to SmartStream, a new free Twitter chat tool which allows Tweet chat participants engage in their favorite healthcare Tweet chats with ease.[read more]

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The most interesting question these sites raise is: do they provide reliable and useful information? Or is it possible to game these sites, as a result of which the ratings can no longer be trusted? Can doctors manipulate them by requesting their happy patients to provide positive reviews? Or can disgruntled patients ruin a doctor's online digital reputation by posting negative, biased and dishonest reviews about him/her on multiple sites?[read more]

Very good healthcare social media presentation by Christina Thielst[read more]