Social media is no longer just a way to connect with friends, but it has also become a powerful new tool for professionals interested in sharing information quickly and effectively without the added expense of running a website. With social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn, doctors can stay up-to-date on the latest medical procedures, expand their professional network, communicate with patients and grow their practices, which is why taking advantage of this new technology is an excellent way to advance any healthcare career.
Doctors with a Smartphone
One of the reasons why social media has become more prominent in the healthcare industry is that it works well with smartphones, enabling medical workers to communicate instantly wherever they go. Over 80% of all doctors now carry smartphones, which they use to send orders to nurses and medical assisting staff instead of waiting to be paged.
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Ensuring Secure Data Transfers
While this technology allows for a quicker response in cases of emergency, there are some security risks that are a concern for patients and hospital administrators. Fortunately, encryption software such as Tiger Text has been developed to prevent doctors from violating patient confidentiality, though many still need training on how to use these programs.
Doctor-Patient Cyber Relationships
Another way that doctors use social media to improve their practice is to use sites such as Facebook, Google+ and Twitter to establish stronger relationships with their patients. Dr. Thomas Lee, for instance, provides a link to his Facebook page in order to give his patients a means to post feedback about his practice or to ask questions concerning their health. For those unsure how to solicit patient feedback, we found this patient feedback article that offers useful tips and tricks for navigating this situation.
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Social Media and Increased Efficiency
Although social networking may look like an added burden for doctors with busy schedules, others use these tools to more easily remind patients about their appointments, schedule a new one, or notify them when running late. In short, social media not only provides a way for doctors to run their practices more efficiently, but it can also improve patient word-of-mouth needed to grow a practice.
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Social Media to Increase Information Sharing
Social media is also great for spreading information, and many reputable medical establishments such as the Mayo Clinic use it to build a trustworthy reference database or to announce the latest news. For example, one group of doctors from Rush University Medical Center used social media to share their personal experiences while participating in the 2010 Haiti earthquake relief effort in order to encourage their readers to contribute.
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Social Media to Aid in Healthcare Hiring
Lastly, social media provides an excellent way for doctors to hire qualified staff to help run their practices. Of all the social networking sites helpful to employers, financial news sources such as Forbes consider LinkedIn to be the most important because more career seekers use it to post their resumes and apply for jobs than any other site. When hiring a new medical assistant, for example, a doctor may look at the LinkedIn profiles of candidates to see what medical assistant training they received as well as examine their links to see who they know or have worked for in the past. Doctors can also use the forums to advertise when a position is available or give hiring advice to other employers, which is why LinkedIn can work as a “one-stop shop” for employment needs.
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Conclusion
These methods only represent the most common ways doctors can use social media to improve their medical practice, as the technology is flexible enough to include numerous other applications. The only limits seem to come from the creative minds of the people who utilize it, as everyone from housewives to CEOs can use social media to achieve their goals.
Social media has much more ability and reach than we could images. Only need is to find its correct use.
Every now and then I see something on TV about Doctors and patients communicating and sharing stuff online. I guess some how they can check records and things. Same with medicine. I know some sites they can just go online and have their medicine delivered to their house. It’s kind of convenient, but at the same time I just wonder if they ever mess up. And, I am one of those that has concerns about security and privacy when it’s done over the internet.
Yea Ray! No doubt it’s very convenient but security is still a concern. I agree with you on that!
I think it’s a great step forward. Maybe at this point still some mistakes will be made. And some doctors will just not understand how to use it.
When this generation retires the next generation is already much more familiar with these new gadgets and they will definitely use it to help them with their work.
Well said Danny!
Thanks for an insight. Social media is no doubt an amazing platform to be used by clinicians or any other professionals. They can share the new techniques and tool of respective field, educate people about disease etc.
Beside this network there are many mobile application which are used by them to streamline their chores like go through EMR’s, finalize the appointments etc.
The role of social media today is focused on so many negative aspects, it’s good to see that it is used as a platform for helping the sick.
Hey Heather Meyers,
You have made some great points on “Doctors with a Smartphone,” is because in my hospital us phlebotomist now have smartphones to record patient details. I dont know how secure this is but time will tell. Great article
I do like the idea of doctors becoming more efficient with social media. But I also share the potential privacy concerns — I think it’s common knowledge that personal privacy is the last thing on Facebook’s agenda.
As with all new advancements, it will take time to iron everything out. Because of the very sensitive and private nature of medical information, this is a field that needs to develop at a controlled pace. But, as far as using SM to help grow a practice, it’s no different than any other business.
Social Media is definitely going to change the future of Healthcare services. It has lots of potential and people need to harness it in the right way.
Thanks for stopping by Bishwajeet. Appreciate it 🙂
Social Media is certainly a beneficial marketing tool for all professionals. However, healthcare professionals must be weary of potentially costly HIPPA security violations — HIPPA has begun monitoring social media and levying huge penalties against those that violate patient confidentiality (as seen in some well publicized cases). Healthcare professionals should use social media to market themselves and their practice to potential and current customers — and it’s certainly much cheaper than building a website. The ideal solution for secure communication between healthcare professionals and their patients is an (http://www.healthfusion.com/patient-portal.asp)electronic health record (EHR) patient portal. Since many practices and hospitals have begun implementing EHRs/EMRs, the technology is available. And with so many of those (http://www.healthfusion.com/ehr-ipad.asp)EHRs running on iPads, iPhones, and mobile devices, constant accessibility is possible anywhere there is an internet connection. Like with anything else, healthcare professionals must just be smart about what they share on unsecured social media sites.
Thanks for the very informative comment Marty. I really appreciate it!