Jumping into Health Care Social Media | HealthWorks Collective: "The legendary bank robber Willie Sutton, when asked, “Why do you rob banks?” answered “That's where the money is.” For the same reason, we cannot ignore social media – that's where the people are, and that's the world in which health care decisions are made – decisions about courses of treatment and choices of providers. Three-quarters of the U.S. adult population is online, and most of them use the internet to find health information. (See Pew Research Center on the Internet and American Life report on The Social Life of Health Information, 2011.) Most people expect to find health care providers online dispensing information (See Edelman Health Engagement Barometer), and a recent survey found that a whopping 81% of consumers believe that if a hospital has a strong social media presence it is more likely to be cutting edge. Marc Monseau (aka @MDMonseau on Twitter), speaking on a recent HealthWorks Collective webinar, highlighted some similar statistics on the readiness of the general population to use social media channels to consume – and share – health information, and emphasized the need for providers and other businesses to jump into social media, but not before establishing guidelines for the use for these tools."
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