The influence of social networks on the work of information professionals specializing in health. The case of spanish official medical associations

Abstract

Introduction. The progress produced in the freedom in the informative content that flows through digital social networks and a greater participation of users in them play a key role in health-related communication, particularly in that generated by information professionals specialized in the health field due to the labor adaptation process that they have contemplated and which they have to attend to according to the evolution of a changing virtual scenario. This article focuses on the activity via social networks of the more than fifty Official Medical Colleges (C.O.M.) that exists in Spain. The main objective is analyze how these channels influence the construction of the messages that are emitted from the institution to the population. Methodology. The research is based on the development of a quantitative methodological technique through a questionnaire answered by specialists in health information from the referred groups. Results. Responsible for preparing and managing the information issued by the C.O.M. value the communication that is exchanged on digital social networks and consider that Twitter (81.3%) and Facebook (50%) are the most relevant according to their interests, focused on health promotion. About the digital social media accounts used by C.O.M. as information sources, it is those of hospital entities that deserve the most credibility, although most do not reflect it in the construction of their own content. Conclusions. The capacity of social networks is valued, as communication channels to inform, establish relationships with different stakeholders and listen to the demands of users to feed back the discourse on networks.