Category Archives: social media

What do medical apps for mobile devices offer in healthcare?

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Seems to me wherever I go people are looking to see what they should be doing about their apps strategy?  If all these potential customers are living on their mobile devices then I’d better move my applications to this world.  And so the focus on medical apps for mobile devices in healthcare.

And the craze seems to be big time happening in healthcare.  Not really that surprising.  In hospitals we have been looking for ways to make it easier to capture information, present information , share information.  And new devices, such as iPads, look like they offer part of the solution.  At least, they have created hope!

But are ‘apps’,per se, technology looking for a problem?

Read a very good piece by Brian Proffitt recently which is very cautious in its expectations for ‘medical apps’.

I’ve seen plenty of examples of hospitals looking to develop apps to increase their interaction with patients – with a view to improving likelihood that recovery paths will be followed e.g. post op physio/ exercise programmes.  And other initiatives generally aimed at improving on outdated websites – by providing more relevant, more easily accessible, information.

In his piece Brian Proffitt points out many of the challenges involved in developing applications which are subject to regulation e.g. FDA validation.  He alos references examples of ‘develop and they will follow’ – perhaps less time spend trying to develop the perfect application and more emphaisis on ‘the strong will survive’.

Personally I think the danger with much of the enthusiasm for apps is that proper analysis is skipped – people buy into the gadget, the new look and feel, but without real changes in process and commitment to change very little sustainable benefits will be realised.  Unfortunately, once again, there are no real shortcuts.

CEO checklist for healthcare providers

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Just read this discussion paper.

Difficult to argue with the credentials of the organisations behind the paper (Cleveland Clinic, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Kaiser Permanente, etc.)

And the content of the paper makes lots of sense.

The checklist is as follows:

Foundational elements
• Governance priority—visible and determined leadership by CEO and Board
• Culture of continuous improvement—commitment to ongoing,
real-time learning
Infrastructure fundamentals
• IT best practices—automated, reliable information to and from the point of
care
• Evidence protocols—effective, efficient, and consistent care
• Resource utilization—optimized use of personnel, physical space, and
other resources
Care delivery priorities
• Integrated care—right care, right setting, right providers, right teamwork
• Shared decision making—patient–clinician collaboration on care plans
• Targeted services—tailored community and clinic interventions for
resource-intensive patients
Reliability and feedback
• Embedded safeguards—supports and prompts to reduce injury and infection
• Internal transparency—visible progress in performance, outcomes, and costs

 

For those of us interested in health informatics much of this speaks to streamlined and managed processes, information technology embedded in everything that happens, use of information technology to improve patient outcomes.  And the importance of an effective EHR is very much to the fore.

Well worth a read – would be interesting to see the views of healthcare provider CEOs.

 

Show me the money

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I think Ken Terry at FierceHealthIT has got it just about right.  Physicians are busy people – looking to get paid for their work.  For now it would not appear that social media offers sufficient  upside commercially nor clinically.  There is no compelling reason for physicians to spend significant amounts of time interacting with patients or potential patients.

I think this is changing and will continue to change.  We will see patients with very detailed health records and detailed information on the performance of physicians looking for a different service.  This may require a new commercial model.  Perhaps it will also impact the clinical care model – with more remote service, before and after a visit to the physician.

But for now I would expect to see busy physicians staying busy and not spending a great deal of time interacting with patients online.

 

 

Stop making excuses – use social media to promote your hospital, your services, your consultants

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One of the better books I’ve read in some time re social media has been The New Rules of Marketing and PR (David Meerman Scott).

Was interested to read his recent post on the subject of using social media to promote businesses in regulated industries.  In fact this post focuses on the healthcare sector.

Seems to me that there are a lot of people looking for excuses/ reasons not to get on with it – it’s too much effort, the lawyers won’t like it, the consultants don’t like it.  All the time an opportunity to interact with patients is being missed.  And, more generally, to interact with the general public.

 

Social networking – potential use by orthopaedic consultants

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Great piece in ‘Orthopaedics Today’: Social media: Orthopedists discuss its role as surgeon’s friend, foe or both. The article is a discussion between a number of orhtopedists re potential positives and negatives of social networking.

A number of interesting points are made in the article:

Social media are here to stay (more than 1bn people using them).  And healthcare/ health treatments are a big topic on social media.  So it ain’t going away.

The doctors see merit in use of social media between themselves on one level and also in engaging with patients – on another level.  At one level there appear to be real concerns about participating in any network which is not restricted to fellow professionals. At another level there is a recognition of the need to communicate with the public – and some potential benefits e.g. patients being better informed, being more aware of professionals, etc.

There are obviously a number of serious concerns about potential legal liability, confidentiality and, on a practical level, the potential loss of time while participating in social media.

Reading all of this – as a non medic, but a consumer of medical services – it seems to me too defensive/ negative.  There is huge potential for much more collaboration between doctors and patients – many patients are more than willing to invest significant time and effort in researching their own condition, recording symptoms over a period of time (See sites such as patientslikeme.  I expect the patient/ doctor interaction will change significantly over the next number of years – enabling doctors to provide improved and more personalised services to patients.

 

Making social media work in healthcare

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Very interesting report just publised by PwC: ‘Social media “likes” healthcare, From marketing to social business‘.  Can be downloaded from their site.

Embracing social media must make sense for healthcare operators for any number of reasons:

  • The users/ buyers of healthcare are using social media on a daily basis
  • Patients are using social media to discuss/ research conditions
  • Patients are participating in sites where they record their conditions/ treatments/ assessments of operators/ physicians
  • Social media offer another way to develop more complete profiles of patients e.g. over longer period of time
  • Social media offer platform for greater collaboration between physicians, healthcare providers and patients

There is an expectation in the buying community that the suppliers will participate in social media.

The report includes some excellent examples of operators (hospitals and insurers) and patients using social media.  www.patientslikeme.com is a great example on the patient side.

The hospitals who ‘get it’ now realise that social media is not something to be looked after by marketing or IT.  Social business/ social interaction is now part of day to day operations for a modern operator.

 

Healthcare sector slow to embrace social media

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Another report suggesting that healthcare providers are not to the fore in embracing social media.

Interesting that this should be the case.  Healthcare provision is hugely dependent on technology.  Providers want to develop deeper relationships with customers – ultimately the patients.

Understandable that there is concern over any potential liability associated with providing advice via social media (or any other media).

Perhaps for some time there may have been some expectation that social media constituted another fad?  Does not look that way.  Platforms such as facebook, twitter, YouTube offer great opportunities for two way interaction between providers and customers.

Seems to me that social media offer all healthcare providers (hospitals, doctors, consultants, dentists, physios, etc) a range of channels through which they can improve the quality and frequency of interaction with their customers.  And those who fail to embrace are missing a real opportunity.  A traditional web site does not do it any more.