Faced with a health decision, social media now affords us a new avenue of information. For health care, this represents a veritable social revolution. — There really isn’t an area of life where social media hasn’t had an impact. We are never more than a click or tap away from information. And healthcare is no exception. In a PwC’s Health Research Institute survey [1] more than 40% of respondents reported that information found on social…

Medicine is at heart a narrative activity; its daily practice filled with stories. “Medicine begins with storytelling. Patients tells stories to describe illness; Doctors tell stories to understand it.” — Dr Siddhartha Mukherjee Medical historian, Stanley Reiser wrote in his his 2009 book, Technological Medicine: The Changing World of Doctors…

If you don’t have a solid online presence, you’re missing out on patients. Although digital marketing has been making waves in the online world of healthcare practices for quite some time, the last few years has really seen some dynamic changes. Digital marketing has moved from a nice-to-have to a…

The benefits of messaging apps for healthcare organizations in improving communication and patient support. — I was struck reading the latest Digital 2023 Global Overview Report to see chat and messaging top the list of most used websites and apps.

Patients are increasingly using social media to connect with other patients and healthcare professionals, a trend known as peer-to-peer health care. This presents an opportunity for healthcare professionals to deliver behavioural interventions using social media, which has the potential to reduce the cost of interventions and increase access to care. The rise of peer-to-peer health care …

With the pandemic forcing people to stay at home and limit in-person interactions, social media became a popular tool for maintaining connections and staying informed. Studies have shown that women, in particular, have been more likely to engage with news on social media than men. This may be due to…

By engaging in productive conversations with patients, we can build trust and promote accurate and reliable health information. — Most patients trust their healthcare professionals, but they also look for medical information outside the exam room. Although many resources offer accurate information (e.g., government health agencies, professional organizations, and patient advocacy groups), not all information is reliable. Medical misinformation can be found online from a variety of sources, which…

Our responsibility is to recognize and protect ourselves and others from the dangers of misinformation. — The satirist, Johnathan Swift, once lamented that falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we glimpsed the rise of an “infodemic”, the dissemination of disinformation across social media. The World Health Organization (WHO) has defined an infodemic as an overabundance of information…

Social media has revolutionized the way we communicate and share information, making it an effective tool for social change. — In the realm of public health, social media can be particularly useful for supporting evidence-based policy and decision-making. …