Cast & Curious

Tag: social media metrics

  • Metric Matrix: How should we measure the impact of social media on clinical excellence?

    “What for? Can we achieve what we ought to achieve in healthcare without social media? We did that in the past, there’s no reason we can’t do that today!”

    After tooth combing available researches online, the above hypothesis seem logical.  There’s some evidence showing social media adding value to healthcare, but these are mostly qualitative studies. Qualitative studies  do not undergo rigid testing of hypothesis characteristic of a good scientific research.

    On the flip side, the absence of disputing evidence does not necessarily mean the hypothesis is valid.  It is just that we don’t have a metric yet to demonstrate the validity of that hypothesis. Such is the case for social media in healthcare.  To import metrics from other fields may also be too simplistic given our superficial understanding of social media behaviour of health stakeholders in relation to healthcare.

    Fortunately social media is considered a disruption in many fields, including healthcare. Desirable disruptions effectively short changes  accepted norms and processes usually in non conventional ways but achieve same or even better goals with uncanny efficiency. The true value of some disruption maybe demonstrable a later time when technology catches on.

    So let me state my alternative hypothesis. Social media might be a way to improve healthcare. The millions of social media users today couldn’t be just a technological spike. The use of social media in healthcare is self evident.

    Healthcare stakeholders engage each other on social media. Patients seek health information and find support groups on social media. Healthcare professionals have virtual communities to share knowledge and network with peers. Healthcare professionals seek social media in the hope of increasing scholarly activities such as research or to recruit population for larger studies. Healthcare organizations use social media for rapid information dissemination as well as engaging other healthcare stakeholders.

    The bottomline for engaging healthcare stakeholders are for me threefold- improve patient outcomes; achieve clinical excellence for healthcare professionals and humane, sustainable, fair provisions of quality healthcare for institutions. If somehow we have a way, a metric for demonstrating social media adding value to these three bottomline perhaps we have a way of sustaining or disputing my hypothesis.

    Let me focus on physicians clinical excellence for now and explore ways of showing impact or value of social media.

    A qualitative study by Kotwal et al showed the following determinants of clinical excellence in a hospital medicine: communicating effectively, appreciating partnerships and collaboration, having superior clinical judgment, being organized and efficient, connecting with patients, committing to continued growth and development, and being professional and humanistic “.

    Thus for social media to have an “impact” on physician clinical excellence, it has to demonstrate a significant significant improvement over time in any (or all) of the determinants from the baseline measure.

    There have been studies on social media as a communication, information dissemination tool in medicine. In the US for examples, Mishori et al looked at the adoption of twitter as an information dissemination platform of 3 big medical association networks. These 3 communities are growing but there’s  limited interaction within and across communities. Information dissemination is below its perceived potential. While the primary objective of the original goal seem to have been met, the study is critical on whether information dissemination alone constitute health “engagement” . Measuring how much engagement is attributed to social media in healthcare via this platform is another area ripe for research.

    • T1. What is healthcare engagement and how would social media add value to it?

    There is evidence showing healthcare professionals create virtual communities and share knowledge on social media. These same virtual communities exhibit what Rolls et al termed as clinicians’ tribal behaviours that may in fact limit the sharing of knowledge across communities. The impact of these virtual communities and the extent of collaboration and sharing of knowledge via social media should be another good area for research in healthcare social media.

    • T2. How would social media improve offline collaboration among healthcare professionals? How should we measure this?

    How does physician trust peers on social media? Panahi et al  found that the “majority of participants established trust on social media mainly through previous personal interaction, authenticity and relevancy of voice, professional standing, consistency of communication, peer recommendation, and non-anonymous and moderated sites.” Healthcare professional credentialing over social media

    • T3. Is social media a valid platform for credentialing healthcare professionals? How do you check peer’s credentials over social media?

    Standardized metrics for measuring the impact of social media to these determinants has yet to be developed. But the bottomline of all these- social media adding value to healthcare vis a vis clinical excellence, is that it adds up value in improving patient outcomes. Thats another area ripe for research.

    Join us this Metric Matrix Saturday March 11, 2017 9PM Manila time as #HealthXPh discusses how should we measure the impact of social media on clinical excellence among healthcare professionals?

    • T1. What is healthcare engagement and how would social media add value to it?
    • T2. How would social media improve offline collaboration among healthcare professionals? How should we measure this?
    • T3. Is social media a valid platform for credentialing healthcare professionals? How do you check peer’s credentials over social media?

    REFERENCES:

    1. Househ M. The use of social media in healthcare: organizational, clinical, and patient perspectives. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2013;183:244–248
    2. Kotwal S1, Peña I, Howell E, Wright S.J Defining Clinical Excellence in Hospital Medicine: A Qualitative Study.Contin Educ Health Prof. 2017 Winter;37(1):3-8. doi: 10.1097/CEH.0000000000000145.
    3. Rolls K, Hansen M, Jackson D, Elliott D. How Health Care Professionals Use Social Media to Create Virtual Communities: An Integrative Review. Eysenbach G, ed. Journal of Medical Internet Research. 2016;18(6):e166. doi:10.2196/jmir.5312.
    4. Panahi S, Watson J, Partridge H Fostering interpersonal trust on social media: physicians’ perspectives and experiences Postgraduate Medical Journal 2016;92:70-73.
    5. Mishori R, Singh LO, Levy B, Newport C. Mapping Physician Twitter Networks: Describing How They Work as a First Step in Understanding Connectivity, Information Flow, and Message Diffusion. Eysenbach G, ed. Journal of Medical Internet Research. 2014;16(4):e107. doi:10.2196/jmir.3006.
    6. Griffiths F, Dobermann T, Cave JAK, et al. The Impact of Online Social Networks on Health and Health Systems: A Scoping Review and Case Studies. Policy & Internet. 2015;7(4):473-496. doi:10.1002/poi3.97.
    7. Houry D, Swahn MH, Hankin A. Social Media, Public Scholarship, and Injury Prevention. Western Journal of Emergency Medicine. 2014;15(5):565-566. doi:10.5811/westjem.2014.5.22754.
    8. Thackeray R, Neiger BL, Smith AK, Van Wagenen SB. Adoption and use of social media among public health departments. BMC Public Health. 2012;12:242. doi:10.1186/1471-2458-12-242.

  • Part IV: Assigning SMART metrics to social media channels

    Ideally, there should be a standard of metrics to measure each of this social media channels. However, such industry benchmarks have yet to be standardized across a fast changing platform that is social media.  It all boils dow to what or how you (and your advocacy) define key metrics and should be at least “aligned” with your advocacy’s goals. Let me introduce, SMART Metrics.

    • S-SPECIFIC
      At the very least, such metrics should be specific and sensitive enough to detect changes across and within the different social media channels.
    • M-MANAGEABLE
      KISS or the keep it simple and manageable, is all the more important to logistically challenge advocacy group and should be a key factor in choosing which metric demonstrate early success.
    • A-ACTIONABLE
      Of course measuring impact on the different channels is useless if you can’t act on it. A metric should trigger corresponding action to achieve your advocacy/ social media goals. Can you improve on what this metric have measured?
    • R-RELEVANT
      I cannot overemphasize the fact any metric should be relevant to your overall advocacy/social media goals. Does it add value to your advocacy? Will your advocacy group be interested in it?
    • T-TIME BOUND
      I keep on repeating that you choose metrics that demonstrate early success. Giving your metrics “deadlines”. Otherwise, it will just be meaningless flutter of data.

    Here are other goal setting strategies on social media according to buffersocial.com. Note it also characterize key metrics.

    This figure illustrates the social media channels and the key metrics along the social media funnel. Choose SMART Metrics:)
    nk06105categoriesofmeasurement

    I’m not going delve deeper into formulas and calculations for each of these metrics. Suffice to say, there are existing  metrics online to measure social media success. Doing a SWOT analysis of each of your goals and aligning these with whats important for your advocacy help you choose which metrics to use. Once you’ve identified your metrics, finding your formula should be easier than you think.

    For our next activity, identify metrics from the figure above and list it down beside the different segments of the social media funnel. Again, choose one that potentially demonstrate immediate success.

    After this activity, you are ready to monitor performance for each of these segments in the social media funnel that adds value to your social media strategy and advocacy goals!

  • 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.