Benefits and Risks of Healthcare Social Media

Social media includes all online tools and technologies which let people communicate and publish content easily. The most popular among them are Blogs, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Widely used for communications and marketing, these channels are considered as important (if not more important) as mainstream media channels like newspapers and television.

The use of social media in healthcare represents an increasingly effective tool in healthcare. It can be used to communicate with consumers, inform about new wellness schemes, market healthcare products, provide basic healthcare advice, inform about latest medical devices, get instant public feedback and much more. At the same time, Healthcare social media also presents challenges, including risks to information accuracy, organizational reputation, and individual privacy.

The primary focus for most organizations' social media programs is marketing and communications. Hospitals are using social media to target health consumers. As consumers are shifting to online searches before making important healthcare decisions, hospitals are looking at creating solid social media presence and fostering long term relationships with their consumers. Internationally, Mayo Clinic has taken the lead in healthcare social media. Mayo Clinic’s Center for Social Media has a stated mission to "lead the social media revolution in healthcare, contributing to health and well being for people everywhere." Indian hospitals are not far behind. The Apollo Hospitals twitter account has more than 2000 followers. Their Facebook page makes wonderful use of the timeline feature, has 91,000 likes and is fast growing. Their YouTube channel has been active for the past 4 years.

Many organizations have also formed online support groups for patients. Patients are encouraged to share their personal experiences and this consumer generated content is an invaluable source of information for other patients. Many doctors, too, have joined such support forums and provide information on various disorders. In a country like India where 70% of healthcare services are paid for ‘out-of-pocket’, Social Media becomes all the more important for healthcare marketing. Companies selling healthcare devices have found social media influences purchasing decisions. Internationally, many pharma companies too have realized the enormous potential of social media. Almost all major drug companies now have social media presence. Companies like Pfizer, Novartis, J & J and Sanofi-Aventis have launched many innovative social media campaigns. The HR departments in many healthcare organizations are using social media sites to spot and recruit talent.

These new tools of communications come with their own risks and dangers. Like a double edged sword, all points in favor of social media usage also contribute to the dangers associated with their use. The dangers social media exposes healthcare to are internal as well as external. Flippant remarks made by nurses or doctors online can be misconstrued by general public. Cases abound where protected health information was shared online inadvertently. The danger of violations of patient privacy cannot be overstated.

Conversations cannot be controlled and negative remarks made on social media by disgruntled employees or consumers cannot be erased. Such risks can be minimized by fostering positive comments by consumers and show casing achievements and consumer centeredness via these communication channels.

Organizations need to gear up to grab the opportunity and face the challenge that is social media. They need to monitor their ‘social presence’ and keep track of consumer sentiments. Use of social media for innovative marketing and communication campaigns should be encouraged. Organizations should educate both their employees and the public on their privacy practices to encourage responsible use of their social media sites. Guidelines and specific social media policies need to be in place to promote risk free use of social media by employees. Once policy is established, employees, volunteers, contracted employees, and medical staff members should receive training and education to ensure they are aware of the policies and procedures. With proper policy and training for employees, healthcare is slowly but surely taming the social media beast that technology has helped unleash on the markets.

Also See:

· Pharma and Healthcare Social Media Wiki: http://bit.ly/hcsmwiki

· Online Database of Healthcare Social Media Policies: http://bit.ly/hcsmpolicy

· Privacy Policies for Social Media: http://journal.ahima.org/2010/01/06/social-media-policies/

Top 10 Health Technology Hazards For 2013

The evolution of healthcare information technology systems such as electronic health records (EHRs) has definitely helped improve quality and efficiency in healthcare. At the same time, there’s a growing level of complexity and opportunity for error. With increasing use of technology in healthcare, healthcare providers need to be wary of the associated risks with its use.

Now in its sixth year, ECRI Institute publishes an annual list of top hazards of technology in healthcare. The Top 10 Health Technology Hazards list is updated each year based upon the prevalence and severity of incidents reported to ECRI Institute by healthcare facilities nationwide; information found in the Institute’s medical device problem reporting databases; and the judgment, analysis, and expertise of the organization’s multidisciplinary staff. Here are the group’s estimation of the most probable hazards which might crop up in 2013 because of use of technology in healthcare.

1.  Alarm hazards

2.  Medication administration errors using infusion pump

3.  Unnecessary radiation exposures and radiation burns during diagnostic radiology procedures

4.  Patient/data mismatches in EHRs and other health IT (HIT) systems

5.  Interoperability failures with medical devices and health IT systems

6. Air embolism hazards

7. Inattention to the needs of pediatric patients when using “adult” technologies

8. Inadequate reprocessing of endoscopic devices and surgical instruments

9. Caregiver distractions from smartphones and other mobile devices

10. Surgical fires

You can download the original report by registering here.

Here are the lists of Top hazards for 2010. for 2011 and for 2012

Photo credit: @Jacobsons on Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Ten Most Innovative Companies In Healthcare 2012

Fast Company routinely publishes their list of 'Most Innovative Companies'. You can find their earlier list here. Here's  their list of most innovative companies in healthcare for 2012.

1) National Marrow Donor Program

Their use of technology shortens the 'Bone marrow transplant' time by using an online hub that helps keep donors and recipients on track during the steps before transplantation. They have also added new matching algorithms to improve search accuracy. NMDP makes extensive use of social media to search for new donors.

2)  Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospitals

India's pride, this is one institution which has beautifully married public and private healthcare enterprise, among it's many other innovations in healthcare services delivery.

3) Walgreens

They are a $70 billion company and the largest drug store chain in the U.S. They offer some amazing online deals in healthcare products.

4)  Castlight Health

Like a price compare in Healthcare services allowing you to bargain, Castlight Health provides transparency into cost and quality, so individuals can make informed decisions about health care.

5) Assistivewear
Found in 2000, they are a truly innovative firm working on assistive technology software for Mac OS X and iOS. Their inclusion is for developing a Virtual on-screen keyboard for users who cannot use a physical one.

6) IBM

They are a fixture in any such list of 'most innovative companies'. This time, they feature on the list for their hugely popular 'Watson supercomputer'. Watson is expected to soon bring its massive artificial intelligence algorithms to help improve healthcare and clinical medicine.

7) Össur

A niche player in orthopedic devices, they are in the list for building the "smart" knee, the first motorized, personalized prosthesis.

8) Heritage Provider Network 

A preventive healthcare services company, they are in the list for funding a data-mining competition to reduce unnecessary hospital visits. 

9) Esri

 A mapping software (G.I.S) company, they have brought in the concept of commercial use of 'Geo-medicine', where they use mapping software to help in diagnosis, management and prevention of diseases (many of which have an environmental trigger).

10) 3M
A large product manufacturing company, they have about 55,000 products in the market, many of them in the healthcare and electronics. Their inclusion is because of their cardiology grade Littmann® Electronic Stethoscope.  

Doctors in Australia Will Please Maintain Silence on Social Media.

The Americans never got it right in healthcare anyways. The Canadians have a beautified version of the same. The Europeans have their hearts in the right place and are still working on theirs. Now its Australia's turn.

Healthcare social media is definitely the elephant in the room and the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) has geared up to fulfill its mandate of “maintaining public safety at its heart”. They recently released their preliminary consultation paper on social media policy for healthcare practitioners:

A draft of the social media policy has been released as a preliminary consultation paper to targeted stakeholders for initial feedback, ahead of a wider public release....The policy reflects the National Boards’ role as regulatory bodies with respect to social media and does not provide more general professional advice.

The preliminary consultation process aims to ‘road test’ the initial draft to weigh operational impact, issues or initial concerns. As expected, Australian doctors have been forced into fighting for their rights! True to its name ‘practitioner regulation agency’, AHPRA has come out with its set of recommended ‘must-nots’ and penalties. This particular draft  is so ‘advertising’ centric, AHPRA misses out on their wider role to “develop or approve standards, codes and guidelines for the health profession”. Advertising in Social Media is only the tip of the iceberg.

As @edwinkruys hints in the comments here, some of the policy statements are plain dumb. While questioning the very need for the document's existence in the present format, some very relevant positions have been outlined on this Crikey health blog. The scope and expectations of the community this document hopes to regulate will hopefully be taken into serious consideration, even it means reversing some old policies.

In its zeal to regulate what they call advertising, the current draft borders on violating right to speech and the freedom of expression. The wordpress blogger Carolyndv says it eloquently “What use are we as healthcare workers if we cannot engage with our community about their health and wellbeing?”. If "Disclosing personal information on social media to current or former patients may breach professional boundaries", they are effectively trying to silence doctors on social media. As a regulating body for developing/approving standards and guidelines, what APHRA also needs to do is define protected health information and state the patient parameters/details which should not be revealed in Social media. It is these sort of definitive guidelines the document lacks while gleefully throttling health information rights of the consumer.

The AHPRA is taking in suggestions till 14th September after which they will hopefully come out with a more rounded and practical draft of social media regulatory guidelines for physicians. Later, the National Boards in the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme (National Scheme) will release a consultation paper on social media policy in October/November 2012.

Indians Expect To Lead The mHealth Revolution : PwC Survey

 

With large penetration of mobile phones in the country (close to 1000 million cellphone users, teledensity >79%), India has realized that mHealth adoption will play a very important part in improving access and quality of healthcare in the country. Countries like China, Brazil and the US have all turned to mHealth in varying degrees. There are significant differences in mhealth adoption among emerging and developed nations. A recent survey from PricewaterhouseCoopers tries to assess the climate for utilization of mHealth in 10 developing and developed countries.

The extensive study included patient survey with over 1,000 respondents, physicians’ survey with 433 physicians and a payer survey with 345 respondents. The study shows that expectations are high for mHealth from patients, providers and payers. Consumers are ready to adopt mobile health faster than the health industry is ready to adapt. Here are a few key findings from the study relevant to India:

•  India and China scored the highest in openness and awareness of mHealth. China shows higher use of mHealth at present compared to India, though the environment in India was felt to be most encouraging of all countries. From the ten countries in the study, Indians expect mHealth to have the largest impact on healthcare. 60% of Indians surveyed felt that widespread adoption of mHealth services is inevitable in the near future.
• 92% of physicians in India expected a noticeable effect of mHealth in 3 years. Also, 52% of physicians in India believe the widespread adoption of mHealth is inevitable.
• Patients in emerging markets like India and China are more willing to pay for mHealth than their counterparts in the developed countries.
• Despite the optimism and the desire, India scored the lowest on the technology front. Technology was found to be most mature in Denmark and US.
• Telephonic consultations, Administrative communication and Remote patient monitoring are the most popular uses of mHealth in India. Remote access to EMRs is fast gaining in importance.

The main drivers for patients using mHealth in India are

1. To reduce own healthcare cost,
2. Improve access to providers,
3. Ability to obtain information.

The main barriers in patient adoption of mHealth in India are cost, lack of relevant applications and unwillingness of doctors.

The main drivers for physician use of mHealth in India were

1. Lowered overall cost of care for patients,
2. Ability to reach previously unreachable patients and
3. Saving of time otherwise spent in administrative functions.

The main barriers in physician adoption of mHealth in India were lack of interest and unavailability of information about mHealth.

Of all stakeholders, Physicians are generally the most reluctant lot to adopt mHealth. In the whole study, 60% of active users of mHealth say that patients and technology companies are more interested in mHealth than physicians. Though Indian physicians seem more amenable to adoption of mHealth compared to physicians in most other countries, we still have a long way to go. Having doctors join the mHealth revolution will be the key to ensuring optimum benefits for the patients. And that, my friend, is going to be a tough task.

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