Social Media and Health Care - The Pros and the Cons

Today so much information is available to so many individuals at any time or on any day thanks to the Internet. The world is Friending, Tweeting, Blogging, Pinning, or Tumbling at a very fast rate. It has been reported that Facebook has over 1 billion active users and Twitter has over 140 million us...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of Health Care Compliance Vol. 15; no. 1; p. 49
Main Authors Norton, Annette, Strauss, Lori J
Format Trade Publication Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Frederick Aspen Publishers, Inc 01.01.2013
Subjects
Compliance
Employees
Health care industry
Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act 1996-US
Medical research
Patient satisfaction
Patients
Personal health
Polls & surveys
Privacy
Social networks
United States > US
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Summary:Today so much information is available to so many individuals at any time or on any day thanks to the Internet. The world is Friending, Tweeting, Blogging, Pinning, or Tumbling at a very fast rate. It has been reported that Facebook has over 1 billion active users and Twitter has over 140 million users. Approximately eight of 10 health care companies use social media sites in some way. In health care, using social media certainly has pros and cons. Social media can be a benefit to both patients and health care providers. In April 2012, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP Health Research Institute conducted a study on usage of social media in health care. The study found that consumers do not object to having their conversations monitored as long as the conversations can help them improve their health. Privacy in health care is a key concern for every organization. Organizations must protect patient privacy; patients expect organizations to protect their personal health information.
ISSN:1520-8303