Cast & Curious

Tag: social media

  • Correcting health misinformation on social media isn’t easy but not impossible

    I’ve seen  dubious health or medical information online in the past but what’s lamentable is that only a few health professionals took time to correct the misinformation.

    These are the possible explanations for this:

    1. We don’t care to do research on the health misinformation we see.
    2. We lack the necessary skills to distill  knowledge and communicate it to the general public
    3. We lack the skills to execute constructive criticisms  over social media.
    4. We lack networking skills to bring the conversation offline

    The common denominator to all of these is apathy. We don’t care that much because social media is nowhere our field of “expertise”.  We also assume that patients wouldn’t and shouldn’t believe these “fake” health information.

    Bad news is, we totally missed the train of opportunities on both instances, . Why? We assert that medical professionals should be the primary  source of medical information but failed miserably at putting our voice online.We make it hard for the general public to find credible healthcare voice online.  Majority of internet users do visit the Google search page before our clinics. Yet we somehow delude ourselves into thinking that the public will find our voice online without us doing our part.

    Why health professionals are not putting their voice online? Why are we so afraid of correcting health  information on social media?

    Most colleagues told me, they’d rather not talk or they might get into “trouble”. Things like online reputation being maligned or stepping on patient privacy rules are the biggest reason for not doing so. Second, most say they don’t have time for social media  in healthcare. Third, most lack the communication skills, that language over social media to connect well with the public. Fourth, which I think is the saddest, most healthcare professionals don’t correct misinformation until it is their reputation is at stake online.

    Most healthcare professionals are practically playing catch up with healthcare social media.

    There’s so much concentration on what physicians should not do on social media because of ethical concerns. That is a very valid reason for caution but it’s not enough. We also have to find creative strategies of using social media to provide a credible voice online and refute medical misinformation.

    Join #HealthXPh this Saturday April 8, 2017 9 PM Manila time as we discuss how credible health information can be placed online  and positively correct medical misinformation.

    • T1. As a healthcare professional, patient or patient advocate, how do you determine health/ medical misinformation online?
    • T2. Are healthcare professionals, patients or patient advocates allowed to refute fake health information online? Would you correct misinformation online? Why or why not?
    • T3. Give 3 tips on strategies you can take to correct medical misinformation on social media.

    Lets find creative ways of positively using social media to disseminate scientific, well researched health information online! Join this tweetchat!

  • Cutting the Noise and Listening to Patients Voice on Social Media

    “Who voices out the patients’ side on your social media healthcare discussions?”

    Inclusive Health
    #HealthXPh was founded on an idea that various healthcare stakeholders particularly the patients, will finally have a voice in the discussions of health on various social platforms. In fact #HealthXPh believed social media will bridge the gap between patients and healthcare professionals in the discussions of health. How #HealthXPh would do this has been our most challenging task since the early days of our social media engagement. We have few success in the past, enabling patients and patient advocates to talk on various social media health forums but never a consistent engagement that we projected over two years ago. We wanted patients to actively engage healthcare professionals and other healthcare stakeholders in the discussions of health on social media platforms.

    Social media divide?
    Social media is a game changer in all aspects of human endeavours nowadays- politics, governance and even health. Internet and social media undeniably democratised access to health. The upsurge of social media discussions on health among patients is evident. Apart from few, rare exchanges we see on social media in developed nations, discussions between patients and healthcare professionals barely took off. Why?

    Culture? Cyberbullying? Privacy or confidentiality issues? No one really knew.

    In this edition of #HealthXph tweet chat we’re interested in the answer to this challenge. We’re crowdsourcing ideas to help engage more patients in our discussions of health on social media. #HealthXPh wants to hear the “patient’s voice” too.

    T1. Should there be a “patient voice” on social media discussions about health?Why or Why not?
    T2. What are the challenges to engaging patients on social media?
    T3. In what ways can we improve patient engagement on healthcare social media discussions?

    At #HealthXPh we’d like to hear your voice! Join us on our discussion this Saturday February 20, 2016 9:00PM Manila Time as we discuss how to cut the noise and listen to the patients voice on social media.

    (Photo by Ashley Clements. Licensed under Creative Commons View this photo on flicker https://www.flickr.com/photos/19933120@N00/46637163/ )

  • Social Media Policy in Healthcare Institutions: A must or too much to ask?

    Since its founding two years ago, #HealthXPh  encourages healthcare professionals to take advantage of social media in improving  healthcare delivery systems in the Philippines. In 2015, #Healthxph rolled out its Medical Professionalism and Healthcare Social Media Manifesto encouraging healthcare professionals to ethically engage the public on social media.  In last year’s Healthcare Social Media Summit we presented how social media changes the healthcare landscape  in the Philippines, vis a vis healthcare research, health education professions, healthcare ethics, and healthcare policy making.

    In 2016, #HealthXPh aims to gain more traction on institutionalising healthcare social media policy. As stated before #HealthXph is neither a healthcare social media policy making nor a social media police-ing body. We however saw the need for healthcare social media policies in healthcare institutions to take advantage of social media’s potential and discourage its misuse.

    There are many obstacles to institutionalising social media policy in health.  The lack of HIPAA like laws in the Philippines is foremost among these obstacles. This does not dampen our advocacy however. In this edition of tweet chat #HealthXPh wants to identify these obstacles and crowdsource solution to these problems.

    Join us this Saturday January 16, 2016 9PM Manila time as we discuss institutionalising healthcare social media policies via #healthXPh tweet chat.

    • T1: Do you have a healthcare social media policy in your healthcare institution?
    • T2: What do you think are the obstacles to institutionalising healthcare social media policy in healthcare?
    • T3: Suggest a practical solution to coming up with healthcare social media policy in your institution.

    Help #HealthXPh crowdsource a strategy to institutionalising healthcare social media policy! Join us this Saturday Jan 16, 2016 9PM Manila time.

    (Header image credit to this article by Allen Quinn “5 Reasons why your company needs a social media policy” . https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-things-include-your-social-media-policy-allen-quinn )

  • Metrics Matrix: Measuring social media success in healthcare

    In the last Global Forum where the #HealthXPh had a session on “Reshaping Healthcare Through Social Media” the audience were keen on knowing the “metrics’ for social media success in healthcare.

    The scientific community honed us to develop the habit of formulating research strategy and validation tools to measure outcomes. Social media despite being a relatively newcomer to healthcare, should not be an exception. There should be a way of measuring social media’s  impact to healthcare or we lose valuable insights into how it played a role in shaping healthcare.

    After the forum I realized majority of the scientist in healthcare (from the forum at least) acknowledge social media ‘s role in shaping healthcare. The big and challenging question now  is, how?

    After reading about social media metrics in healthcare, there’s two things I learned.

    First,  social media “success” is a result of a carefully planned and executed social media strategy. Second, there seem to be no clear agreement on how to go about”measuring” social media success. Thus, we ask our healthcare social media colleagues their insights into the metrics matrix for success in social media healthcare.

    Join us this Saturday September 11, 2015 (PM Manila time as we discuss the metrics of healthcare social media

    We’ve been saying healthcare should take advantage of social media tools to effect change. Healthcare needed some sort of a strategy complemented with a well thought out but practical implementation design. Or we’re just “riding the tides” of social media popularity and lose valuable healthcare insights.

    T1: Do you have a social media strategy for your personal practice, healthcare institution or organization?

    “Listening – or social media monitoring – involves searching for online conversations about your brand or industry using key words and phrases.” – radian6

    Listening, monitoring and measuring are all part of an effective  healthcare social media strategy. Social scientist have been developing methods to do this, like network analysis (SNA) and NodeXL.

    T2: To which part of healthcare do you “tune in” your social media monitoring?  Brand? The healthcare industry in general or your competition?

    “Engagement is the Holy Grail of a listening and monitoring program. Engagement means gaining and holding the attention of consumers and prospects through regular healthcare-to-community interactions” – radian6

    T3: To which healthcare stakeholder do you engage the most in social media? Patients? Colleagues? Institutions?Which do you think is most important?

    As a conclusion, please comment on the validity of social media metrics in healthcare.  Social media is reshaping healthcare. Knowing what or how to measure success (or failure) gives the healthcare stakeholders valuable tools to take charge of health.

  • Here’s why healthcare professionals should be on social media

    Should healthcare professionals be on social media? 

    I’ve been asked this question countless times before and answered it in several forums. I said  YES healthcare professionals should be cautiously on social media in last year’s Philippine College of Physicians convention (Facebook for physicians; Use, Misuse, Abuse, Confused) . I said YES, HCPs should be on social media responsibly on #healthXPh‘s regular twitter chat (post and the chat transcript ) and recently, I answered a resounding YES, HCPs should be on social media, when an audience asked a similar question during the Healthcare Social Media Summit 2015 (#hcsmPH)  in Cebu.

    Before explaining my answer, let me digress a bit and explore the reason why healthcare professionals are NOT on social media.

    I asked a physician in the Philippines why he is not on social media (as a physician). This physician has a huge private practice and is a consultant in some well known healthcare institutions in a city. He answered me this:

    “I don’t want to be known as a physician on social media. I’m pretty scared of what get posted on my profile.  It might backfire on me. Anybody can throw malicious comments on me, or hack my account and wreak havoc on my profile!  My healthcare institution also forbid us to post anything related to work without clearing it from them first. Healthcare is my work so I need to ask them first every time I post on social media! That’s crazy! Besides, I was quite successful with my practice without social media, why would I need one now?”

    Such is a classic answer from a professional working in a highly regulated industry. Physicians and lawyers are examples of people working in a highly regulated industry. Highly regulated industries like law and healthcare have strict privacy and confidentially rules governing sharing of information .  The ease of sharing private and confidential information on social media is what healthcare professionals and healthcare institutions is apprehensive about. This distrust for social media and the people using it stem from some well known misconceptions about social media.

    Social media is person to person (P2P)

    That social media is just for marketing, branding and showing off is not true. Social media is a person to person (P2P) network. We tend to forget that both ends of social media conversations and networks are people.  We connect with people and build networks tru social media, just like what we do everyday, even at work.  It is interesting to note that in highly regulated industries like healthcare, we service people! How can healthcare miss the world of social media then if we are to service real people or connect with them?

    This is one very good point from Mark Schaefer (@markschaefer) in his book Tao of Twitter. Highly regulated industries allows the people in it to attend conventions, workshops, seminars etc. What do they do in those events?  Meet like minded people, learn from industry experts, expand networks, sometimes build brands, market etc. All of these we can do in social media too, often without leaving the comforts of our home or the workplace.

    So why are healthcare professionals missing the world of social media? Apprehensions? Misconceptions?

    Social media is public space, no matter how private your settings are. 

    “I have social media profiles but its personal and secret to only a few friends.” Added my friend above. He has a social media account after all, only that  it is a personal, “private” account.  A word of caution about privacy settings. In the evolving social media and digital world,  any post on internet particularly on social media, is a post on public space. What you privately post now, will come out on public searches tomorrow.

    So while my physician friend is on social media (albeit privately),  why is he still missing out a lot on the power of social media in healthcare? Remember, humans are basically social.  Social media as it is evolving right now is really a person to person conversation, human connections. Therefore, authenticity is an important value.

    That’s why I’m advocating HCPs should be on social media (if they’re not yet on it)  and act as they would do daily,  at work, when you connect with people or talk to them. That is with authenticity as a healthcare professional.  Social media should just be an extension of your offline pprofession and you should act like one, accordingly.

    Note: To guide healthcare professionals, how to act on social media,  #HealthXPh summed up a crowdsource social media manifesto for healthcare professionals and publish it here. Sign to show support! 

    Again, I say yes, healthcare professionals should be in social media. What we do at work-  “authentic helpfulness” ( to borrow @markschaefer term), talking to real people, of building networks and learning from our patients and colleagues, social media has an entire world of new tools to enhance this. That’s never been for show off in the first place!

    Resources:

    1.  “PH doctors spell out limits of social media use in the medical profession”. The Manila Times . May 7, 2014 
    2.  Lei, Katherine . “Adoption of Social Media by Healthcare Professionals: Optional or Necessary?  HealthXPh.net March 14, 2014
    3. #HealthXPh Tweetchat transcript @symplur From:Sat Mar 14 6:00:00 PDT 2015 To:Sat Mar 14 7:00:00 PDT 2015
    4. Schaefer, Mark . Tao of Twitter. Mc Graw Hill Education.  2014