The blog post 6 Arguments Against Social Media in Healthcare? listed 6 reasons why “social media doesn’t or wouldn’t work for healthcare.” The issue were:

• Social media opens the door for a HIPAA violation
• “No control over what people will say about us.”
• “There’s no return on investment.”
• “People don’t go online when picking healthcare providers.”
• “Our doctors don’t care about social media.”
• “Everyone will be on Facebook instead of working.”

Here are some quick links to articles that provide answers?  to each of these. I will later post more detail.

#1 Social media opens the door for a HIPAA violation

The blog The Realities of HIPAA in Social Media?  states “Patients and family members are not covered entities under HIPAA.?  So it??™s not a HIPAA violation for a well-meaning daughter to post that her father received great care at General Hospital after his stroke from uncontrolled diabetes. Media and internet attorneys will also explain there is no liability for General Hospital to sponsor or even own the site on which the daughter makes the post.? ”

#2 “No control over what people will say about us.”

Brian Solis in his blog post The Myth of Control in New Media? wrote?  “retaining control, following the socialization of the Web, is nothing more than pure legend. While many companies retain control during the stages of defining and shaping messages, control is relinquished at the point of distribution. Once messages are published, they are at the mercy of consumers, peers, and influencers online and offline.”?  is this a reason for fear? No…Read the rest of the article.

#3 “There’s no return on investment.”

While there has been MUCH debate about calculating ROI for Social Media, as early as 2006 a reaonable model for Calculating the ROI of blogging was published by Forrester analyst Charlen Li. There are lots of ways to calculate ROI but first you must understand your objectives.

#4 “people don’t go online when picking healthcare providers.”

Accoriding to the Forrester Report “Healthcare Consumers Continue to Migrate Online.” 78% of consumer seek health information online. The primary reason consumers goto a health plans website is to Find a doctor.

#5 “Our doctors don’t care about social media.”

In USA today and on his blog Doctors who are not on Facebook, Twitter and blogs risk becoming irrelevant;? ? Kevin Pho, M.D states:?  “doctors who fail to embrace social media risk becoming irrelevant, as more patients flock to the web as a source of health information, rather than endure the inconvenience of a doctor??™s office”?  Doctors

#6 “Everyone will be on Facebook instead of working.”

OK let’s not go to extremes. Yes some will abuse the use of Social Media that is where you social media policy comes into place. The article How to Control Employees at Work offer some practical tips.

Post you comment and links to other answers and enjoy the Pink Glove Video!

Growing Consumer Need

Consumer habits are changing. More U.S. consumers are turning to the internet for healthcare information, and healthcare companies aren’t quite keeping up with online demand.

Currently, healthcare websites offer limited information to consumers, and most aren’t anywhere near the top search engine results for consumer healthcare issues. Consumers are turning to millions of other service-based sites that rank high in search engine results, such as WebMD, for healthcare information where insurance sites not only fall short- they miss the mark entirely. Even sites like WebMD are beginning to be placed in second chair to Social Networking sites. Only a few health insurance companies have recognized and acted upon this need.

As a result, health insurance websites that focus on offering information will position themselves in the marketplace as invaluable resources for consumers. As more research is done over the internet to find service, quality and cost information of doctors, hospitals and insurance plans, the healthcare industry must respond and engage those demands- or be left behind.

How to Respond

Companies thus far have poured resources into the bread and butter of transaction-based online tools, but have failed to serve the customer or even bring them to the table. It’s long been established that the internet is information-based, and instead of that changing as may have been predicted, it’s holding true.

Consumers want accurate information tailored to meet their questions. Fortunately, healthcare companies have access to that information- but have yet to offer it in efficient, easy-to-use tools for the web.

WebMD’s physician finder has gained amazing popularity. Priority Health also has a Find-A-Doctor tool that rates the doctors in their network.  Consumers will find even greater benefits as providers offer more specific and personalized information in a similar way. It’s not just a good idea- it’s the future of healthcare companies that want to position themselves for growth.

Engaging consumers with accurate, relevant data will not only meet consumer needs to be informed, but will create an online service level of trust in companies that take the initiative to offer more than they expect, with complete accuracy.

Engaging consumers online is as simple and complex as reading their minds. Thanks to the internet, that’s easy. Search engine data like Google Analytics show just that- what healthcare consumers are searching for. Social Media search sites like Social Mention provided insight into exactly what consumers are saying across the social web. Companies’ customer service records also provide exact questions consumers ask regularly that would be more cost-effective to answer online.

Combining these questions into one data-driven search tool is the answer. Consumers will find more information in one place and have their specific questions answered, which in turn increases company trust and consumer plan satisfaction, and causes customer-service costs to fall significantly.

As consumer demand for more then just a quote from health plan websites. Health plans will come to realize the valuable of being customer centric.

As the cost of healthcare rises, many agree the focus should be centered on the cost of care. One model that is being discussed in the Medical Home Model also known as patient centered medical home model. This model rewards physician for keeping patients health and out of the hospital.

The concept of the medical home has been kicked around for over forty years. Yet, the flavor the is currently being debated requires that both patients and primary care physician educate themselves. Regarding how this program would benefit all parties involved. Technology is a primary reason that even now this model could possibly be implemented.

A key to the success of this program is keeping patients highly involved in their care. One online resource that facilities patient engagement is howsyourhealth.org. This website educates patients and allows them to fill out an online health survey that becomes a starting point for their electronic health records. The website does not look like a web 2.0 site or for that matter a professional website that you would expect to see in 2009. However, over 100,00 people have used this site to provide medical information to their doctors. 695 of the users of this website are female and 33% of the sites users are over 50 years old.

While much debate will continue around this model, patients will continue to have an active role in the management of their healthcare and the internet will become the hub for both patients and physicians to exchange information.

We moved to Grand Rapids 2 years ago and my wife still drives almost an hour to go to the doctor in East Lansing. She just has not been able to find a doctor here. Finding a doctor is like finding a date or a mate. A slight difference being that even though you may not say it most people mean ???till death do us part, probably more so than when people get married. So that means finding the right doctor is probably one of the biggest decision people today make.

So how do you find a doctor? The two biggest factors are location and reputation. Hmmm…Sounds like the 2 biggest things I talk about. So you guessed it, this makes Health care providers the biggest group who should be taking advantage on the Web 2.0 evolution. WebMD has become an incredible force with unique visitors jumping from 853,000 in 2004 to 40.3 million unique users per month in 2007. Mayo Clinic has created an online community that has blogs, forums, podcast, videos, and slide shows.

What do you call a doctor who passes medical school with a D average? Doctor

But who do you want operating on you? Of course you want to entrust your life into the hands of the most competent individual. Care Providers can showcase their knowledge through blogs and podcast. At the same time keeping their patients informed. Believe me there are a lot of crackpots out there blogging about health care who probably should be blogging at all.?  Then there are those like Dr. Oz. Who is not aware of Dr. OZ ???Americas??? doctor? Google his name on the internet and you will get 645,000 hits. If you are a health care provider, how many hits do you get when you Google your name and is your website or blog one of the top 10 pages? Instead of WebMD I am sure most would prefer to read helpful medical information from their own local care providers.

Word of mouth can grow or kill a business or practice. I am not sure if most health care providers know what people are saying about them the other day while on yahoo local my chiropractors name came up (I was not searching for a chiropractor). Chris Miller is great by the way and that is exactly what someone had said. Who would you choice someone not rated or someone with 5 stars? If you are a health care provider do you know what people are saying about you online?

From 1996 ??“ 1998 I spent a great deal of time at the University of Michigan Hospital help doctors and nurses take advantage of the latest technology back then. The last two years I have been helping out launch one of the best clinical inventory management systems in the world. Maybe now I will spend some time helping care providers in Grand Rapids fully adopt Web 2.0 technologies. But first I have to help my wife find a local doctor.

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