HealthCare Social Media Review: First Ever Edition!

Welcome to the First Ever! Edition of the HealthCare Social Media Review.

First, I would like to thank my extremely helpful colleague, David Harlow, who was instumental in getting our endeavor up and running. David will host the next edition of The Review on his website, HealthBlawg.

Second, I would like to thank all those of you who helped out with advice, ideas, and willingness to host future HCSM Review Editions.

Third, I would like to thank all those of you who submitted posts for this first edition. I truly enjoy reading all the posts that I receive and I thank you all for the opportunity.

This is a photo of me this weekend hard at work reading and creating this first edition:

I did not specify a topic or theme because I just wanted to see what kind of posts I would receive. I could then categorize the posts the way that I saw fit. So here goes….

Physician Guidelines for the Use of Social Media

A great post on Physician Guidelines for using social media in healthcare was submitted by Mark Ryan from his blog, Social Media Health Care. Mark is a family medicine doctor with great experience in social media. He speaks on the use of social media in healthcare and is on the Mayo Clinic Social Media Advisory Board. This post offers suggestions and advice for physicians about how to use social media and the advantages that can be gained.

Advantages and ROI of Social Media in HealthCare

For encouragement to enter the world of social media, look to Howard Luk’s post, Physicians Should Be Part of the Online HealthCare Discussion on his website, howardluksmd. Howard is an orthopaedic surgeon with a great interest in social media. He has written numerous posts on the subject, encouraging and advising physicians to get involved. In this post, you will learn the risks of not participating in healthcare social media:

“The Internet has forever changed the way our patients will approach healthcare. Digital or social media is NOT a passing fad… get past that.”

And Howard closes by saying:

“Lastly, I personally feel that to ignore the intersection of healthcare and social media, is to ignore your own potential relevance as a healthcare practitioner over the coming years”

Indeed, social media is a force to be reckoned with!

Social Media Platforms Used in HealthCare – Overview

For an overview on social media options, see Gary Levin’s post on The Many Platforms of Social Media in HealthCare on his website, Health Train Express. Gary is a social media expert and hosts almost daily hangouts on Google+ This post talks about the options available in social media and includes a very cool infographic with stats on what percentage of providers and physicians are using social media and how.

Twitter

Dan Diamond’s post, Hospitals on Twitter: Current Trends and Proven Strategies, offers really great advice on how to use Twitter and also wonderful information on the use of social media in general. Dan is managing editor of the Daily Briefing, the Advisory Board’s flagship newsletter, and also steers the firm’s email and social media strategy. He is an expert in healthcare news. His post goes into detail on how to work with Twitter, how Twitter started, stats on Twitter use and strategies to maximize use of this great social media tool.

Doximity and iRounds

David Williams, Co-Founder of MedPharma Partners, LLC, talks about Doximity: The Professional Network for Physicians on his website, The HealthBusinessBlog. David interviews Jeff Tangney, Co-Founder and CEO of Doximity about HIPAA compliance, privacy and offering physicians a safe place online to talk and share information. Jeff also talks about some major cases that have been solved on iRounds, Doximity’s mobile platform. He then goes on to talk about the Doximity business model, and the advantages the service offers to physicians. A worthwhile HCSM service indeed!

Pinterest

Marie Ennis-O’Conner, a public relations professional who blogs at Social Ease Marketing, wrote a wonderful exclusive post for us here on HealthWorks Collective about the new social media site, Pinterest. Marie specializes in healthcare communications and non-profit social media marketing. Her post, How to Create a Pinteresting HealthCare Social Media Strategy, is filled with lots of information about Pinterest and how to use it to maximize the potential of this rapidly growing site. I am including one of her Pinterest Tips here:

“#Pinterest Tip: For healthcare, images related to exercise, nutrition and other health care promotion resources work well, as you can see in this example from the Facing Cancer Together pinboard, which highlights healthy living tips for wellness and cancer prevention.”

Marie’s post is filled with great information – Read it and learn about Pinterest!

Advantages of Social Media Use for Patients

Improving Health Literacy

David Lee Scher, Founder and Director at DLS Healthcare Consulting,LLC, wrote a great post about improving health literacy through digital health technologies on his website, The Digital Health Corner. Dr. Scher states, “Technology can improve health literacy…patients without PCs at home may watch in the provider’s office, log in at the library or via a smart phone….let’s use common sense, get with the 21st century and improve the patient relationship literacy of our medical students, physicians, and other providers.

Communicating With Teens

Katie Malbon wrote a wonderful post about using social media for teens to spread awareness of STDs and pregnancy prevention. Dr. Malbon works at the Mt Sinai Adolescent Health Center in NYC where she started her project, Text in the City, using texting to communicate with teens. Her post, Using Social Networks to Prevent STDs can be found on her blog, Text in the City. In her post, Dr. Malbon argues:

“So, if they[teens] are doing all this through one main ‘portal’, it makes sense that we, as health professionals, reach them in that space. The advantages of doing this could be huge” And she’s right!

Self-Management and Self-Awareness

Self-tracking and self-monitoring are becoming more and more prevalent among dedicated members of the self-awareness movement. Kent Bottles writes about this in his post, Will the Self-Awareness Movement Take Off in HealthCare?, published on The Doctor Weighs In. Kent’s talks about the beginning of the Quantified Self-Movement and Gary Wolf’s blog:

“According to Wolf, four technologic advances made the quantified self movement possible:

“First, electronic sensors got smaller and better. Second, people started carrying powerful computing devices, typically disguised as mobile phones. Third, social media made it seem normal to share everything. And fourth, we began to get an inkling of the rise of a global superintelligence known as the cloud.”

Kent goes on to give specific examples of individuals using social media and technology to motivate themselves, change their behavior, and monitor their progress.

With increasing technological advances and social media options, more and more individuals and organizations will adopt this behavior.

And last, but certainly not least, the Privacy Issue!

Privacy has been, and always will be, a concern in any healthcare communication network. Our expert healthcare lawyer, David Harlow (mentioned above), writes about the privacy concern. In his post, Context-Relative Informational Norms – Buzzword or Paradigm Shift?, David explains:

“In the health care and health care social media context, we all need to be aware of our own needs and desires concerning sharing of personal information, and we all need to be aware of the ways in which personal information is shared and used, and re-shared and re-used, by the platforms and repositories that we use. Armed with this knowledge, we can work to establish our own context-sensitive norms, and work to ensure that they are honored.”

In his post, David also offers resources and tips for those who want to learn more about privacy and social networking.

And in 2 weeks time, David will be hosting the Second Edition of The HealthCare Social Media Review, and so David, I pass the HealthCare Social Media Review hat to you!