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  • Vera Rulon

    Social Health Networks

    January 10, 2012

    Vera Rulon, Director

    There is no doubt that healthcare is evolving due to technology and mobile health.

    In an interview, Daniel Kraft MD, executive director of FutureMed, discussed what he thought were the “big ideas” in healthcare tech that will impact health care delivery in 2012. http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/01/healthtech-2012

    I’d like to focus on social health networks, one of the 6 big ideas that Kraft discussed.

    Surely Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. have changed how we communicate with each other. The younger generations prefer to text each other rather than speaking on the phone and they seem to be quite open about discussing their personal lives online. How does this translate to health care?

    Well, with the proliferation of mobile devices and the use of social media, we are also seeing more and more patient sites: people talking to each other about their conditions and seeking advice.

    Everett Rodgers, in his book “Diffusion of Innovations,” shares that diffusion of something new happens through cultural networks. So perhaps as we see an increase in consumers’ search for health information through the use of social media and mobile devices, they may change behavior based on advice from peers — those who have the same conditions as them and share similar experiences.

    Perhaps this is why social media could be a significant force in changing behavior, including in healthcare. How people use it will guide whether the change is for the better. I’ll save the privacy and security discussion for another blog.

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  1. Vera Rulon

    Vera Rulon said:

    Hi Brian. I couldn’t agree with you more.
    When it comes to healthcare, social learning environments shouldn’t be left to chance. In order to truly glean the benefits of social networks and change in behavior, we have to be smart and creative in how we approach models and systems…. and learn from experience.

    on January 20, 2012 at 12:18 pm

  2. Brian S. McGowan PhD (@BrianSMcGowan) said:

    Vera:

    I hope you are right…or else my book is going to flop ;-P

    Seriously – collaborative models for information flow, learning, and healthcare improvement have just begun to demonstrate their value. To this point the existing systems have been poorly engineered (for this purpose) and the users have been largely ill-equipped (patients AND physicians) to get the most out of the new social learning environments. As a result, ole fashion trial-and-error and serendipity are behind most of our existing success stories.

    For us to get this right we need to be pretty smart about aggregating best practices in social learning for healthcare and we have to be pretty innovative with our systems design.

    Seems to me that what is on the line is too important to leave to chance.

    Brian

    on January 19, 2012 at 8:27 pm