Social media in medicine is here to stay. The banter centered on social media’s “emergence” and “potential” have been largely replaced by discussions dissecting best-practices and real use-case scenarios from practices that have successfully implemented social media strategies.[1-2]
While physician use of social media has been delayed, in part by various misconceptions, there is one population that has vociferously integrated social media use into their lives and continues to call for its increased use amongst physicians. That population is our patients.
Patients’ Perceptions of the Online Presence of Physicians
When does a patient form a first impression about a physician or practice? The days of making a first impression when you meet your patients in person are numbered. Rather, in the modern era, patients have likely already formed an opinion about us and our practices before we meet them. And those opinions are largely influenced by the information they discover online.
In that respect, when was the last time you Googled your name and/or your practice’s? What did you find? Vijayasarathi and his colleagues recently demonstrated that the first page of Google search results for radiologists in the US is largely dominated by third-party physician rating sites that limit the amount of control physicians have over the content hosted on those sites.[3]
Physicians and their practices can “displace” these third-party sites from Google search results (such as vitals.com and healthgrades.com) by starting and maintaining active social media profiles. These social media sites are preferentially prioritized as compared to the third-party sites and, if active, will likely be listed ahead of them accordingly.
Recently, Google has further stated that social media activity will continue to be prioritized by the search algorithms employed by the company.[4-5] However, since the third-party physician ratings sites will still exist — and will likely shift strategies to adapt to future search algorithms — attention should also be paid to creating and populating physician profiles on these sites.
Gilbert and his colleagues previously demonstrated that less than 1/10th of radiologists have an existing profile on the dominant third-party physician rating sites, which represents an additional way radiologists can favorably mold their online presence, if social media profiles are less preferred.[6]
Ultimately, the content that patients are able to find about physicians prior to tangibly engaging with them will continue to have greater influence on their perceptions and opinions about individual physicians and physician practices. Social media is a key tool in optimizing an online presence and complementing information populating physician-rating sites.
Physicians as Curators
In addition to improving the online presence and discoverability of physicians, social media sites allow physicians to provide content that patients are seeking.
Social media platforms provide physicians an opportunity to provide opinions and interpretations of online information to broad populations. Plus, the social media platforms used to post this information allow physicians and practices to engage with patients in a meaningful way that will improve the overall patient experience.
Specifically, O’Connor and colleagues recently demonstrated in a randomized trial that patients having hip and knee replacements have a decreased level of preoperative anxiety when given access to a YouTube library of videos related to their surgery.[7]
Online Patient Communities
There has been a shift in the way that patients protect their privacy as it relates to their health. Historically, people were less likely to share details about their health or particular diseases, except for with those closest to them. However, today’s patients actively seek out peers with similar diseases or advocates for health care as it relates to their diagnosis. This behavior has led to a surge in online patient communities that are organized predominantly by patients with similar diseases or ailments. The newfound “open-ness” to discuss very personal issues related to health care is a paradigm shift that further underscores the importance of social media as it relates to the patient experience.
Physicians can effectively interact with members of these groups by providing up to date information and peer-reviewed content that can help patients seek appropriate care and better inform the questions they ask of their physicians.
The Radiology Hashtag Ontology
The vast amount of information that is produced on social media platforms is staggering (Figure 1). In 2014, there were 3.3 million Facebook posts, 120 hours of YouTube video uploaded, and 342,000 tweets every 60 seconds.[8] How can the content that is shared on these social sites ever become a meaningful, mineable data source when each bit of information is akin to a grain of sand on the beach?
For patients interested in radiology, how can they go about finding the best resources for radiology-related information on social media? And for physicians and practices producing radiology-related content, how can they reach patients and audiences that are not yet following them via social media forums?
Figure 1. Growth of online social media activity between 2012 and 2014 [15].
By tagging social media content in a programmatic, ontological manner, the newsfeeds, live streams, and timelines all become mineable. To this end, a social media ontology for radiology is hosted by Symplur (Symplur.com, Upland, CA).[9] In 2015, there were 123,911 tweets from 28,045 unique Twitter users using the Radiology Hashtag Ontology.[9]
Social media is redefining the way people communicate. In health care, more specifically, it is redefining how our patients communicate, how they communicate with each other, and how they seek information from content experts.
For more information about social media and the patient experience, please review the article in the December 2016 JACR Special Issue: Patient- and Family-Centered Care.
Hawkins CM, DeLaO AJ, Hung C. Social Media and the Patient Experience. J Am Coll Radiol December 2016;13(12 Pt B):1615–1621.
References
- Glover M, Choy G, Boland GW, Saini S, Prabhakar AM. Radiology and social media: are private practices radiology groups more social than academic radiology departments? J Am Coll Radiol 2015; 12(5):513-518.
- Bibault JE, Leroy T, Blanchard P, et al. Mobile technology and social media in the clinical practice of young radiation oncologists: results of a comprehensive nationwide cross-sectional survey. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 2014; 90(1):231-237.
- Vijayasarathi A, Loehfelm T, Duszak R, Hawkins CM. Radiologists’ online identities: What patients find when they search radiologists by name. AJR 2016; accepted for publication, not yet published.
- Gray, CM. 5 Things You Need to Know About Social Media & SEO. Kissmetrics Blog. Available at: https://blog.kissmetrics.com/social-media-and-seo/. Accessed 4 June 2016.
- Patel N. Why Social Is the New SEO. Quicksprouts Blog. Available at: http://www.quicksprout.com/2014/04/11/why-social-is-the-new-seo/. Accessed on 4 June 2016.
Gilbert K, Hawkins CM, Hughes DR, et al. Physician rating websites: do radiologists have an online presence? J Am Coll Radiol 2015; 12(8):867-871.
