You might not be feeling all that social towards social media. You may find it a giant
waste of time and energy. Also, isn’t it a legal minefield? Why in the world should you
be interested in this? “Social media is a tool that we can use to transform health care,”
said Kevin R. Campbell, MD (@DrKevinCampbell; 29.5K Tweets, 99.4K followers),
at an ACC.15 session devoted to social media. Dr. Campbell, an electrophysiologist, is
from North Carolina Heart and Vascular and a Fox News contributor. On his website
(drkevincampbellmd.com) he states it simply: “Social media and cyberspace is where our
patients ARE now and where we NEED to be in order to better meet their needs.”
S
ocial media and texting have become the prevailing means of connecting amongst a huge
swath of humanity. The numbers are impressive: market leader Facebook averaged 1.04 billion
daily active users in Dec. 2015 and 1.59 billion
monthly active users. Instagram—that addictive
photo-sharing site—boasts 400 million monthly
active users and has hosted more than 40 billion
photos shared, at an average daily rate of 80 million
photos. The messaging app, Whatsapp, speaks for a
smooth 900 million monthly active fans.
But what does this mean for the provision of
medical services or for physicians trying to better
communicate with their patients? How can doctors harness the power of social media to better
inform and empower patients? Can these technologies really improve patient adherence and, more
importantly, outcomes, or is this all just a ‘flash in
the pan’ phenomenon?
#DisruptiveTechnology
Like so much of new technology, social media offers a unique set of opportunities and challenges for
the health care world. There is ongoing debate as
to whether and how the medical profession should
use platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube
to communicate (presumably more effectively) with
patients and the public at large.
But given how widely and rapidly these technologies have been adopted, the questions bear
answering. Here are some quick stats from the Pew
Research Center:
• Nearly two-thirds of Americans own smartphones, putting text messaging, social networking, and apps literally at their fingertips
24 hours a day.
• In a recent survey, 62% report using their
phone to access medical information.
• Among all Internet users, a 2014 survey
showed that 74% of online adults use social
networking sites, the most common by far being Facebook, followed by all the rest (such as
Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn).
ACC.org/CSWN
Technology has exploded and is not only changing society, according to Peter Papadakos, MD,
from the University of Rochester Medical Center
School of Medicine and Dentistry in New York, it is
massively changing the individual and his ability to
interact with his fellow humans. Disruptive technology is never fun, but usually it does not alter the
wiring of our brain. It happens to some degree with
most heavy users, but Dr. Papadakos noted that
there is also an extreme response called internet
addiction disorder, where magnetic resonance imaging reveals hyperstimulation from intensive use that
reconfigures the brain.
#WhoDoctorsFollow
Twitter may be having a tough time defending
its business model lately, but despite stagnant
user growth, it remains the “go-to social media
channel for physicians, reporters, and many others in the online health ecosystem,” according
to Greg Matthews (@chimoose; 21.2K Tweets,
16.2K followers). Mr. Matthews is the founder
and managing director of MDigitalLife, a health
ecosystem database that has mapped the digital footprint of more than 700,000 people and
organizations worldwide who use social media.
It is the first database to link physicians’ social
properties to an official data source, the National
Provider Identifier (NPI)—the 10-digit ID number
issued to health care providers by the Centers for
Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
Mr. Matthews and MDigitalLife recently published a fascinating series called, “Who doctors ACTUALLY follow, 2016 edition.” They split the series
into three parts, one each dedicated to reporters