Benefits Of Social Media In Healthcare

Benefits and Risks of Social Media in Healthcare and Social media’s rapid growth in the healthcare industry is to helping to create more opportunities and bringing with it privacy and security challenges. “Using social media can help physicians create a professional presence online, express their personal views and foster relationships, but it can also create new challenges for the patient-physician relationship,” said AMA Board Member Mary Anne McCaffree, M.D. “The AMA’s new policy outlines a number of considerations physicians should weigh when building or maintaining a presence online.” The new policy encourages physicians to Use privacy settings to safeguard personal information and content to the fullest extent possible on social networking

Recognize that actions online and content posted can negatively affect their reputations among patients and colleagues, and may even have consequences for their medical careers (Admin, 2010). In the late 20th Century the internet was born and shortly after the personal computer began flooded every home. With the internet, began concerns for the public’s privacy on a national scale. Popular Social Media such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, LinkedIn, and Blogs usage began to increase and dominate technology (Social Media + Healthcare, 2011). The healthcare industry began to utilize social media not only for personal communication but for marketing and advertising, educating, awareness of services, promote wellness as well as sponsoring forums and support groups. There are many benefits of using Social Media in Healthcare. Providers benefit from reducing costs associated with office supplies, telephone calls, The Department of Veterans Affairs implemented a system called VistA, an online healthcare system that enables doctors to interact with each other on a regular basis. The online system helped reduce it’s per patient heath care cost by 30 percent (Social Media dials up

Patients receive benefits from use of social media where their healthcare is concerned as well. Patients can receive a reduction in cost by utilizing social media to find solutions to health issues instead of paying to visit a doctor. Patients who may be suffering from long term illnesses or just looking for opinions from others can utilize social media to interact with other patients. Patients can find support groups for terminal illnesses, or find sites where they can request reviews of certain hospital, nursing homes or physicians before deciding who to see. One example of social media in healthcare is CaringBridge (www.caringbridge.org), which offers "free, personal and private websites that connect people experiencing a significant health challenge to family and friends, making each health journey easier." Each day more than half a million people connect through CaringBridge, according to the site (Social Media + Healthcare, 2011). Patients who use social media can also benefit from information being more readily available. Websites such as WebMD allow users to search symptoms to help find a doctor in the area specified (Social Media