Social networking is the future of health care for three very simple reasons: It is better for patients; providers; and payers.
Let’s first look at how a variety of social networking tools such as Facebook, Twitter, PatientsLikeMe and scores of iPhone applications are improving people’s health.
Ironically, the power of these tools does not rest so much in their technological capabilities—as impressive as they may be—as they do in their ability to harness and channel one of humankind’s oldest motivators: The desire to do what is right for one’s family and one’s community.
And, herein, lies the real power of social networking tools—they allow patients to share health care information with their family, friends, colleagues and, increasingly, even strangers. This act of sharing information then serves as a powerful mechanism for holding people accountable for performing the very actions which will lead to an improvement in health care outcomes.
Today, any number of procedures, including weighing oneself, taking medications, or checking one’s blood pressure or glucose level can easily be monitored online. This, in turn, allows interested parties to monitor one’s performance. A friendly “atta boy” from a daughter or grandson is more powerful than a chiding from a nurse or doctor.
Moreover, if there is an incentive attached to using a social networking tool to continuous monitor performance, it can serves as an additional motivator. (To gain an appreciation of the opportunity in this area, I invite you to watch this 5-minute video of Vena’s new social networking platform.)
Second, social networking tools, will help health care professionals reconnect with the reason most of them went into the profession in the first place—namely, to care for people. Again, it is somewhat ironic that instead of “depersonalizing” the patient-doctor relationship (as many people fear), social networking tools allow professionals more time to focus more on the human-side of the business—and less on the administrative tasks.
For example, by utilizing tools such as Myca, Medscape and Epocrates, doctors can quickly and accurately research and diagnose diseases. This will leave them more time to explain, educate and treat patients. In the case of Hello Health, patients can use its FaceBook-like application to pull-up a doctor’s schedule, select a time slot, indicate the type of appointment, ask questions in advance, and then schedule the appointment. This simple tool saves the patient from having to sit unnecessarily in the doctor’s office and it allows the provider to be better prepared when he/she arrives for the consultation with the patient.
The third reason the industry will inevitably move toward the rapid adoption of social networking tools is because it will save hospitals, insurance companies and the government billions of dollars. As one doctor recently said, “This is a $2.4 trillion industry run on handwritten notes … we’re using a 3000-year-old tools to deliver health care in the richest country on this planet.”
Not for long.
To understand the opportunity for savings, it first helps to know that that the Mayo Clinic—now regarded as a leader in employing social networking tools—has spent a total of only $1,500 on the area. The majority of social networking tools are free. In Mayo’s case, its podcasts regularly educate up to 80,000 listeners at a time, and it’s YouTube channel is saving thousands of patients from unnecessary visits. Elsewhere, innovative health care providers in Spain are using the virtual reality site, Second Life, to consult with teenagers about sexually transmitted diseases, while others are using SimulConsult to help generalists make the better and earlier diagnoses of rare diseases and conditions. The net result is that patients are being treated sooner at a lower cost.
One hundred thousand (100,000) doctors are using Epocrates at an average of 6 times-a-day. This and other social networking tools will continue to explode in the years ahead because it is a proverbial win-win-win situation for the patients, providers and payers.
If you are interested in the future of health care from the perspective of everything from robotics, RFID technology and genomics to biotechnology and nanotechnology, check out the following past posts:
The Future of Health Care is as Near as Your iPhone
Healthcare is the “Verge” of Something Big
Here Comes Intelligent Medicine
The Future of Healthcare is Accelerating
Personalized Medicine’s Accelerating Future
The Future of Health Care: Preventing Disease
Health Care Providers Need a Second Life
The Future of Health Care: Part 3 (Robotics)The Robot Will See You Now
Hospitals Robotic Future: Part 2
Hospitals Robotic Future: Part 1
Hospitals Get a Lift
