Social Media and Healthcare

Googling does not mean I think I’m a doctor. It’s a sign of being an engaged, empowered “e-patient.” 

I partner with great doctors – I don’t tell them what to do. And they welcome me doing it.

I personally am completely opposed to a patient going in and saying “I’ve decided I have condition X, and I want you to prescribe 42mg QID of medication Y.” I mean, have you ever seen the things medical students have to learn to get their license??

But I’m all in favor of a patient saying, “I have symptoms A and B, and from what I can tell from websites J and Q, that sounds like it could be M.” Explain your thinking, identify your source, and try to solve the diagnostic puzzle together: Collaborate. 

The flip side is that it’s demonstrably wrong for a doctor to insist that their diagnosis must be right; 

And to flip it again, patient engagement isn’t a synonym for “the patient is always right.”

Googling is a sign of an engaged patient. The only reason a patient ever searches for information is because they’re trying to learn more! To smack that down is to discourage engagement. 

That’s empowering. That’s modern. That’s participatory. Do it that way.

The tricky parts of medicine are hard. Work together.

read this classic and evergreen post at
https://participatorymedicine.org/epatients/2015/11/the-truth-about-the-your-googling-and-my-medical-degree-mug.html

 

Patient's interests and behaviors shift during the holiday season, and thus, so should your healthcare marketing. 

 

The holidays provide an opportunity to be creative with your messaging and to strengthen the provider-patient relationship during a season filled with holiday cheer and a spirit of giving.

 

But the holidays can also mean a break in routine, which opens the doors for some mistakes. To make the most of your holiday healthcare marketing, read on for common mistakes doctors and dentists make around the holidays and how to avoid them.

 

Many of today’s leading health threats aren’t ones that science or medicine can solve alone.

 

Changing trends in communication and unequal access to care to mean we need new solutions and partnerships to overcome these global challenges.

 

Facebook is developing products and partnerships that can help people connect with resources to support their health.  

 

Take the issue of blood shortages. Every few seconds, someone in the world needs blood. But people often aren’t aware of shortages and don’t know where to donate. To address this, we launched a feature in the US, India, Brazil, Bangladesh, and Pakistan that makes it easy to sign up as a donor on Facebook and get notified when nearby blood banks are in need. So far, more than 50 million people have signed up to donate.

 

Another area we’re exploring is preventive health. Tens of millions of people in the US are missing out on recommended preventive care. Preventive measures have the potential to detect disease early when it’s most treatable and, in some cases, prevent it from developing. Yet factors such as awareness, access, and cost create barriers to testing for many people.

 

• We’re working with US health organizations to offer a Preventive Health tool that connects people to health resources and checkup reminders. 
• People can use the tool to find affordable places to receive care, set reminders to schedule tests, mark when tests are completed, and more.                                                                              

Our initial focus is on the top two leading causes of death in the US: heart disease and cancer. 

 

How Preventive Health Works

 

In the US, people can search for Preventive Health in the Facebook mobile app and find out which checkups, such as cholesterol tests or mammograms, are recommended by these health organizations based on the age and sex they provide. Reminders for flu shots will also appear at the appropriate time of year. 

 

The tool allows people to mark when tests are completed, set reminders to schedule future tests and tell loved ones about the tool to increase awareness of preventive care. People can also learn more about each checkup and find affordable places to receive care.

 

Privacy Matters

 

Health is particularly personal, so we took privacy and safety into account from the beginning.

 

For example, Preventive Health allows you to set reminders for your future checkups and mark them as done, but it doesn’t provide us, or the health organizations we’re working with, access to your actual test results. Personal information about your activity in Preventive Health is not shared with third parties, such as health organizations or insurance companies, so it can’t be used for purposes like insurance eligibility. 

 

We know there’s more we can do to help people, and we’ll continue to partner with organizations to provide access to resources and reach people in diverse communities.

 

Read More: https://about.fb.com/news/2019/10/connecting-people-with-health-resources/

 

 

"First, there was crowdfunding, now there’s crowd-diagnosis"

 

Where people turn to strangers on social media to get a diagnosis — including for STDs.

 

This trend has been growing in popularity, but the authors of a new study say diagnosing STDs using social media can often be unreliable.

 

• Thousands of people post in an online health forum seeking a “crowd-diagnosis” of their sexually transmitted disease (STD).
• A new study found people have turned to Reddit for help getting an STD diagnosis.
• Experts say this isn’t a great idea, since other posters may not have a medical background or all the necessary information to give a definitive diagnosis.
• But there are online sites like CrowdMed where licensed medical professionals may help people who are worried about a possible STD.

An advocate is a “supporter, believer, sponsor, promoter, campaigner, backer, or spokesperson.Social media is not an activity it's a strategy. Using this strategy with Patient advocacy is what this talk by Nrip Nihalani is about