Good news, made it through my MBA interview! And luckily, the graduate student who helped with the interview shared an interest in healthcare, so she really liked my presentation. Here are a few of the highlights:
1. More than 136 million Americans are “Health 2.0” consumers
2. Social media websites are the 3rd most popular source of health information
3. 73% of patients search online before visiting a doctor
4. Currently, there are 660 U.S. hospitals with over 1,300 social media sites
Twitter is one of the fastest growing social media websites, experiencing a 40% increase each month. It can provide immediate updates about hospital conditions like wait times or flu vaccine availability. Hospitals use Facebook fan pages to post contact information relevant updates. Fans can “follow” the hospital and participate in health-related discussions. Also, Facebook offers over 1,200 support communities that advocate for the cure of chronic diseases. Even YouTube channels are used to provide patients with physician profiles, virtual hospital tours, or instructive videos.
Social media can also help (1) recruit and train medical personnel, (2) connect to mainstream media & raise public awareness, (3) communicate instantly during time of crisis, (4) and provide health information to target specific patient markets.
Even the U.S. Government supports the use of social media. For example, Healthy People 2020 (www.healthypeople.gov/2020) is a government sponsored program with 10-year national objectives to improve the health of all Americans. Sample objectives include (1) increasing the number of health-related websites, and (2) using social media for health promotion & disease prevention.
In the future, social media website will allow patients to rate/recommend physicians, chat live 24/7 online, and even schedule appointments or pay bills online.
Pretty interesting stuff, right?
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