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Social Media and Healthcare – Making News This Week

6 August 2010

Social media is here to stay, and the utilization and impact of various forms of social media within the healthcare industry are increasing at a very rapid pace.  Many skeptics thought that social media was a fad, or just a blip on the radar.  Not only is social media here for the long-term, it is making huge inroads in the healthcare industry, an industry which many did not initially think would be conducive for social media.

Currently, social media is being used in the healthcare field largely as a marketing and communications tool:

• Hospitals marketing services to patients
• Physicians marketing themselves to patients
• Recruiting firms marketing jobs to candidates and services to hospitals
• Providers and health professionals sharing information, news and ideas with one another regarding medical practice or industry news
• Providers and facilities passing along health information to the public 

Many health industry experts see social media as an excellent vehicle for public health messages – and many accounts of physicians, providers, and hospitals are already tweeting and sharing positive health advice, tips, and ideas to the public.  However, this is only the tip of the iceberg for how social media may be used in the healthcare industry.  Social media could be used eventually for other types of communications between practices, hospitals, and patients – to schedule appointments, follow up from appointments, remind patients of treatment times or medications needed, or even monitoring patient vital signs to report confidentially back to the providers.

This week has been a big week for social media in healthcare, including several “firsts” for the industry: 

1. The Mayo Clinic, one of the nation’s leading hospitals, and a pioneer for the use of social media in healthcare, announced the opening of its Social Media Center this week.  This center is the first of its kind amongst all of the nation’s thousands of hospitals.  Read more about the center, and the services that are planned for delivery via a staff of eight professionals, in this local news report, or visit the website of the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media.
2. This week, the FDA became involved in regulating the social media practices of a pharmaceutical company – Novartis. Read more about the warning that was issued to Novartis in the Wall Street Journal. ”It’s the first time the FDA has issued an enforcement letter over a Facebook widget,” according to the WSJ report, which adds that the FDA was concerned about the accuracy of information being sent to users’ facebook pages when using the “Facebook Share” widget.  
3. A hospital employee in the Detroit, Mich. area was fired after she posted disparaging comments about a high-profile patient (local police-shooting suspect) on her facebook page, from her personal computer.  Read the report on MyFoxDetroit.com (WJBK)   This is not the first time a health professional has been in trouble for a social media transgression, but it may be the first report of someone being terminated for it.

More:

• 20 Top Social Media Resources for Healthcare
• Follow The Medicus Firm on Twitter
• The Medicus Firm on Facebook

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