Social Media and Engaging with Health Providers

Abstract

Social media offers considerable opportunities for patients and clinicians to engage and collaborate across geographic borders for clinical care, research and patient support. While social media use in healthcare is currently in its infancy, there is enormous potential for applications dedicated to accessing health information, specialist clinical knowledge and participating in the latest research initiatives. These benefits are amplified for patients and clinicians who are geographically dispersed, such as those working in the field of rare and orphan diseases. Different applications of these tools emerge frequently and technological developments will provide increasingly better platforms for patients and clinicians to collaborate and engage to improve health outcomes.