Social Media is Becoming Popular in the Medical Field
Social Media is Being Used More Among Physicians
More and more doctors are turning to social media when it comes to updating their patients with information they find on Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc in regards to a concern they have. Many doctors are now texting patients instead of only having to wait until it is the right time for them to phone their patients. You can read more about this here:
New breed of doctors turn to social media, texting for patient care - CBS News
CBS NewsNew breed of doctors turn to social media, texting for patient careCBS NewsThe American Medical Association acknowledges benefits in using social media, but also warns doctors to protect patient privacy and "maintain appropriate boundaries" w ...
As noted in the article, it is believed that doctors are afraid to risk their careers and their patients' privacy if they were to turn to texting and taking advantage of social media tools. However, if they are responsible with it and do not give a sudden diagnosis to the patient through this method, it is extremely handy for both the doctor and the patient. The doctors will spend less time having to call the patients after their shifts, and at the same time the patients will not have to wait for that phone call either. That waiting period is stressful on the patient. Also as noted, doctors can utilize social media in order to Tweet or text informative blog posts to their patients if it is relevant to their issue. This is a great thing in many ways. One reason it is good is due to the fact that if the doctor sends the patient a reference source, the patient will less likely have to run to Google to look up an illness that they might have and frighten themselves for no reason as a result. If the patient receives this information from their doctor, then that is all the patient needs to pay attention to and not seek out anything else. Secondly this method helps the patient trust his or her doctor. If the physician texts him/her something informative- he/she will sense that the patient cares enough in order to take the time to send off a text, Tweet or Facebook message. There are still more doctors who would rather communicate only by using the pen and paper, as well as the phone. But the numbers in physicians who want to engage in social media is increasing, which again can be very helpful to the patient.
2 Comments
This is actually a very good thing. If patients and doctors can communicate with one another like this, it will be time saving too.
It will hopefully become more mainstream in time. This is a good start though.