Engaging patients through social media

Abstract

The transformation of information gathering and the emergence of the engaged patient has demonstrated the increased importance of social media in the broader healthcare context. A patient’s need for information gathering relating to healthcare can be observed throughout the treatment pathway – hence, ensuring that patients have access to reliable, up-to-date, and understandable information remains a significant challenge. Due to patient trust in clinicians and the broad reach of social media, healthcare professionals (HCPs) are in a prime position to drive better healthcare outcomes through social media. Currently there are few formal and many informal organized healthcare professional and patient groups that try to ensure the correctness and accessibility of healthcare information, with no clear definition of responsibilities. It will become increasingly important to ensure the monitoring and regulation of the space where patients gather their information and form their opinions. For the healthcare industry, it is becoming increasingly important to be able to react quickly and decisively to events on social media. Additionally, companies are increasingly utilizing social media as a tool to build relationships with patients and the general public. Mid-sized, specialized and consumer care companies are leading the change from uni-directional broadcasting of information to an engaging and relationship-orientated online conversation. However, in general, the industry needs to become less risk averse to new engagements with stakeholders to remain relevant in the overall healthcare discussion. Ironically, regulators are often more effective in their own usage of social media, in part due to fewer restrictions. The increased engagement of regulators will drive further uptake of the digital channels by other stakeholders and demonstrate the importance of these channels to the overall healthcare ecosystem. Further investigation needs to be conducted to assess the real impact of social media, not only from a return on investment perspective but also its impact on healthcare decisions by HCPs and patients alike. An index such as the IMS Health Social Media Engagement index, which attempts to quantify the success of corporate and regulator social media engagements, should be utilized to assess impact and influence of social media, driving discussions towards what these channels should be utilized for and how they fit into the overall healthcare agenda.