How Does Social Media Affect On Health Support?

Social Media and Healthcare ServicesNameInstitutional AffiliationDate
Social Media and Healthcare Services
Social media is the largest means of communication. Social media includes platforms such as Facebook, What's up, or Twitter. It is one of the most popular communication tools in today's society. By using these tools, people can post their thoughts and daily lives, and share them with the world. Since Social media is so powerful and convenient, we can use it to make an effective impact on our health and body wellness. Social media is not only for communication but also can be a very useful source to have a sufficient impact on health support.
Social media is a good way of spreading information and news to the world. It is efficient, convenient and sometimes reliable. The definition of social media is a primary staple of communication. When social media is involved in health support, it provides the resource for help. Social media offers different routes to those people who is suffering from health problems. Social Media may not be the usual avenue for accessing help, but it offers more than one lifeline to those suffering from mental health problems. It can help to support groups, answer questions, provide counseling, and offer a route to diagnosis (Davies). Through social media like Facebook or Twitter can easily get in touch with the people in the world. Patients can post their experience on Facebook. Everyone can see their situation and give suggestions to the patient.
Many of the patients share their thoughts and situation on social media. Those people who are willing to share are more likely to trust other patients on social media. Patients, who are already active social media users, consider themselves part of a tribe and tend to trust others on social media more than other sources CITATION Ama12 \l 1033 (Amalia & Catherine, 2012). It only makes sense that they will use social media to connect with each other to share their experiences with both rare and common disease and health issues. (Belbey). Patients use social media to communicate with other patients in the world. Social media provides a current stage. On this stage, patients can ask questions about a certain disease or any other matters, and their question can be answered by those people who also use social media. Here is an example. A 31-year-old Ghana man with severe pressure sores. When questioned as to why he used social media, the Community Officer responded that these were the easiest ways he could get in touch with the help he needed.” (Davies). The person who is from Ghana reached for help through social media CITATION Geo12 \l 1033 (George, LS, & JL, 2012). Through social media, his question was answered. This shows that social media can be the easiest and fastest way to get support. Another evidence also proves that people rely on getting information from social media. Here goes “ According to a 2014 paper from C. Lee Ventola published by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), 80 percent of patients are using the internet, and subsequently social media and blog sites, to get healthcare information. (Ventola). This shows that healthcare providers can notify their patients for good health habits, also giving information on potential problems they might be facing.
According to ( Chiang ) " While educating and keeping patients informed of their medical conditions and treatment options are part and parcel of one's job as a physician, patients' self-diagnosis and misinterpretation of medical information obtained online could be potentially dangerous to their health. " Even social media is a good way of spreading information and news about the world; the information one receive can be dangerous. For example, a patient wants to know the medicine for cold, and an anonymous person gave a medication name to the patient. Under this situation, it is dangerous to take medication without any doctor's recommendation. No one knows if someone is allergic to this medicine or not. Although it is easy to ask for help through social media, the information patient might be dangerous to one's health. Here comes the solution: “Physicians are also using social media to promote patient health care education. They tweet, make blog posts, record videos, and participate in disease-specific discussion forums focused on patient education. Such forums provide an important opportunity for physicians to distribute evidence-based information to counter inaccurate material on the Internet.” ( Heath ). Patients can increase health care education through social media. Once patient’s medical education improved, which patients will be able to decide what information is useful and what is not.
The healthcare experts use social media as a way of learning. Most of the physicians often join the online communities where they can be able to read the new articles and listen to what the other experts in the field are saying. They can also use social media to research the various medical developments that take place and even consult their colleagues regarding the various patient issues and form a network CITATION Gri14 \l 1033 (Grindrod, Forgione, & Tsuyui, 2014 ). They also share cases and ideas in the forums, discuss the proper practice management challenges, make referrals, disseminate their research, market their practice and advocate for proper health practice. They can also use social media to communicate directly to the patients.
Numerous hospitals are using the blogs as a tool for customer rating and providing feedback. Some of the healthcare organizations also allow the user to share their experiences on the facility blog or they can also link it to their website so that someone who is interested can refer to it later. Most of the prospective customers can be able to see value in the peer reviews of the other patients CITATION Vik11 \l 1033 (Vikram, 2011). Most of the customers prefer listening to experiences from the other patients who visited the hospital rather than reading the company generated content.
Most of the hospitals with a high integration of social media marketing and communication plan have done better than their peers. One of the common examples is Sarasota Memorial in Florida that is very active on social media. It has over 1230 followers as well as Facebook. The above example is an illustration of how a healthcare provider can incorporate a two-way communication channel with its patients, physicians and the community as a symbol of evolved organization culture.
Sermo is a “physician only” social networking community that verifies the credentials of the new members during registration. Physicians who mostly represent 68 specialties in all the 50 stages gather on the site so that they can network, to discuss the treatment options and to query their peers...