Practicing social media in health and medicine:A primer for researchers and health professionals

Daniel HookerResearchereHealth Strategy Office

@danhooker

(Fran)Cisco GrajalesGraduate Student ResearchereHealth Strategy Office

Trainee, Western Regional Training Centre for HSR

@ciscogiii

eHealth Investigative Partnership Program(eHIPP) RoundsJune 16, 2011

Introductions

image credit Kris Krug

Overview

By the end of this presentation, you will be able to:

• Define “social media” and understand generally how they are used in medicine and health research

• Identify issues relating to the everyday use of social media in health and medicine

• Understand current directions in social media research

• Recognize future directions in the field

Social Media Defined

• Social media is the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogue. (Wikipedia)

• Often synonymous with Web 2.0

• “Seems to be like Pink Floyd lyrics: It can mean different things to different people, depending on your state of mind.” (Kevin Maney)

Basic Premises of Social Media

• Social media research in medicine is parallel in with telephone-

based telemedicine

• No true “experts”: things change and evolve - FAST!

• No service, website or company fits into one service category.

• Education and Awareness

• Data Collection

• Remote Monitoring

• P2P Communication

• Disease and Epidemic Outbreak Tracking

• Diagnostic Treatment and Support

BLOGS

What is a Blog?

A blog is a type of website... usually maintained by an

individual with regular entries of commentary,

descriptions of events, or other material such as

graphics or video. (Wikipedia, 12 June 2011)

What is Twitter?

•Twitter is often called a “microblog”:

primarily text- and hyperlink-based communication 140-characters in length.

•Allows people to exchange ideas rapidly and consume with massive amounts of information quickly.

•The 140-character limit was chosen based on text-messaging.

What is social networking?

Web-based tools that allow for social interaction through profile pages of “friends” who upload, share, and comment on each others’ digital media.

Facebook for Rounding?

ISSUES: Privacy / Professionalism

ISSUES: Privacy / Professionalism

ISSUES: Privacy / Professionalism

What about information quality?

MYTHS

Social media is always positive

Social media is always positive

Social media is brand new

Social media is too hard

Gender Equity?

• Many of the leaders are women

• @DrVal, Founder of getbetterhealth.com

• @sixuntilme, Highly Regarded ePatient

• @CorineJansen, Chief Listening Officer, UMC St. Radboud

RESEARCH

Rules of engagement

• Be authentic

• Maintain professionalism

• Have fun & don’t let the fear of

the unknown stop you

• Ask for help

• Focus, Grab Attention, Engage,

and Take Action (The Dragonfly

Model)

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD?

•Facilitating research production by enhancing collaboration, communication, information sharing (Community of Practice)

•Clinical trial recruitment

•Staying current

•Open(ing) peer review

•Fighting misinformation spread

•Shifting roles for patients, providers and policy makers

THANK YOU

Questions?

Daniel Hookerhttp://danielhooker.com/ @danhookerdaniel.h@ubc.ca

Fran(Cisco) J Grajales IIIhttp://franciscograjales.com/ @ciscogiiicisco@franciscograjales.com