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“Healthcare and Social Media - Connubial Bliss or Collision Course?”
Posted: 8/4/2010 2:15:14 PM
by Lucy Reynales, Director of Sales & Marketing | with 13 comments

This was the title chosen by Alex Fair of FairCareMD for a recent Health 2.0 meet-up. For most cases, Wellness Layers is of the position that open social outlets should be used to disseminate news and repurpose valuable content for increased awareness and for keeping the buzz around available health and wellness services and solutions. The environment for a real social exchange for healthcare, however, is not an open forum but a private secure one, where discussions can be discrete, care can be tracked, protocols can be followed, and privacy settings are aligned with HIPAA guidelines. This describes our approach for Social Health and we are big advocates of creating private social health and wellness destinations. Our numbers show that while engagement on Facebook and Twitter reaches around 2% of the patients and customers of our clients, we are able to engage between 50-98% of their clients and patients with a private patient portal.

While Facebook and Twitter for healthcare do not show strong engagement numbers, leveraging them should be a part of your marketing strategy to attract new patients, maintain your brand image, and share news. Actually, a connectivity between the private and public communities will be beneficial in some cases.

Below is a video clip from a presentation delivered by Wellness Layers CEO, Dr. Amir Kishon on patient engagement.
 

 

Video recorded July 21st, 2010

 
comments
Alex Fair
Great talk and I could not agree more on your position for social media and healthcare. I think there is great potential for improved provider - patient communications too but only in the Direct Messaging aspects that perhaps belong in other applications. Nonetheless, twitter and facebook are where people are and if people want to use those systems to talk about their care using those private messaging platforms, they will. Providers who participate like this need to be careful, but the reward is happier, better-cared-for patients who are more likely to stick to their advice - at least according to some preliminary studies we heard about at this event.

Does the risk balance the reward? The message we got from some of the doctors and patients using HCSM was a resounding yes! Does that mean that one lawsuit could sour everyone on the idea? Yes, but like anything else, good precautions prevent lawsuits. What we probably need is a safety belt or air bag here, not to stop driving cars. Follow HIPAA in all interactions and all is good. Or use site like mine that remove all identifiers for patients.

I know you (Dr. Kishon) poked fun at my choice of words "Connubial Bliss" or happy marriage, but I will defend the choice as a good metaphor for what we are seeing in the best case scenario. Doctors and patients are communicating directly thousands of times a day to the benefit of both.

What prevents collision courses are clear lines on the road and good signaling for trains, planes and automobiles. Perhaps this will allow the benefits and mitigate the risks of Healthcare and Social Media. Not that I want to contradict Esther Dyson, but maybe you can regulate this cocktail party? It is all digital after all. That remains to be seen.

Thank you for opening up that great event. To watch the whole even (2 hours of video) you can gor to our new FairCareTV channel at www.livestream.com/faircaremd too.
8/5/2010 11:39:53 AM
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Nonetheless, twitter and facebook are where people are and if people want to use those systems to talk about their care using those private messaging platforms, they will. Providers who participate like this need to be careful, but the reward is happier, better-cared-for patients who are more likely to stick to their advice - at least according to some preliminary studies we heard about at this event!!!
11/14/2011 8:06:23 AM
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Hello Wellnesslayers,
Thanks you for your post A lot of people are looking to sell their cars these days for reasons ranging from economics to just a desire to get something new. The question many have is how do you go about selling it if you don't have the title. Why would you not have title? Well, this is common if you used a loan to finance the purchase. Your lender will either be named on the title or hold it, both of which prevent you from selling it.
Cheerio
11/19/2011 2:21:15 PM
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I think there is great potential for improved provider - patient communications too but only in the Direct Messaging aspects that perhaps belong in other applications. Nonetheless, twitter and facebook are where people are and if people want to use those systems to talk about their care using those private messaging platforms, they will.
11/25/2011 9:34:07 AM
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s great potential for improved provider - patient communications too but only in the Direct Messaging aspects that perhaps belong in other applications. Nonetheless, twitter and facebook are where people are and if people want to use
12/18/2011 1:57:06 PM
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potential for improved provider - patient communications too but only in the Direct Messaging aspects that perhaps belong in other applications. Nonetheless, twitter and facebook are where people are and if people want to use
12/18/2011 1:58:11 PM
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improved provider - patient communications too but only in the Direct Messaging aspects that perhaps belong in other applications. Nonetheless, twitter and facebook are where people are and if people want to use
12/18/2011 1:58:55 PM
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patient communications too but only in the Direct Messaging aspects that perhaps belong in other applications. Nonetheless, twitter and facebook are where people are and if people want to use
12/19/2011 10:11:56 AM
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too but only in the Direct Messaging aspects that perhaps belong in other applications. Nonetheless, twitter and facebook are where people are and if people want to use
12/19/2011 10:13:19 AM
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better-cared-for patients who are more likely to stick to their advice - at least according to some preliminary studies we heard about at this event!!!
1/9/2012 11:48:11 AM
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w the benefits and mitigate the risks of Healthcare and Social Media. Not that I want to contradict Esther Dyson, but maybe you can regulate this cocktail party? It is all digital after all. That remains to be seen.
2/1/2012 12:35:07 PM
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Actually, a connectivity between the private and public communities will be beneficial in some cases
2/3/2012 6:16:04 AM
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we are able to engage between 50-98% of their clients and patients with a private patient portal.
2/6/2012 3:21:41 PM
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