Social Media: The Key to Transforming Doctor-Patient Communication
Your child has come down with a rasping cough. You put on your Dr. Mom hat, jump online and feverishly Google their symptoms, you check social media to see if any of your friend’s children are sick. Overwhelmed by the multitude of potential diagnoses, you decide to wait and see if the cough subsides before scheduling an appointment.
But what if you could connect with your doctor using social media; asking for advice via a quick Twitter or Facebook message? Your doctor responds within 24 hours, offering some quick tips and pointing you in the direction of some credible online resources. As a parent you feel relieved, empowered and thankful to have a doctor that is open to communicating with her patients online, instead of feeling left to blindly search on WebMD.com.
But while a few doctors including Wendy Sue Swanson, MD, author of the Seattle Mama Doc blog and Natasha Burgert, MD, author of KC Kids Doc blog, are using digital communication to communicate better with their patients, according to a 2011 survey by AMN Healthcare only 8% of physicians said they use social media at work to connect with patients.
Filed under Blogging, Communication, Public Relations, Rachael Seda, Social Media, Twitter | Tags: doctor-patient communication, HCSM, health communication, healthcare, Natasha Burgert, Social Media, Wendy Sue Swanson | Comments (22)If social media and blogs in the U.S reach nearly 80% of active U.S. Internet users and represent the majority of Americans’ time online (MediaPost) then why aren’t physicians taking advantage of the opportunity to reach their patients where they already are?
