Improving doctor-patient communication via social media and lower costs
May 14, 2012
Hospital social media accounts (credit: Peter D. DeVries/International Journal of Electronic Finance)
A new social media platform geared towards healthcare might enable patients to share information with other patients and gain knowledge — and enable physicians to share and learn from their peers more readily, says a study in the International Journal of Electronic Finance.
The meshing of these two threads could also make improve doctor-patient communication, and healthcare industry as a whole,by reducing inefficiencies and making healthcare provision and advice more immediate and engaging at lower cost.
Peter DeVries of the Department of Finance, Accounting, and CIS, at the University of Houston – Downtown, suggests that from the perspective of healthcare providers social media might also open up new revenue streams that could bolster an industry currently in economic turmoil.
DeVries says there is likely to be a 124,000 shortfall of full-time physicians in the USA by 2025, while there will be a need for almost 140,000 family physicians by 2020 if Americans are to have adequate access to primary healthcare.
The projected shortage of physicians demands innovation in the healthcare industry, says DeVries. “Doctors and hospitals must find ways to provide healthcare in more productive and efficient ways,” he adds. “If a growing number of patients are finding themselves as users of Web 2.0, then Web 2.0 might be the answer to alleviate the forecasted overcrowding.”
Ref.: Peter D. DeVries, Electronic social media in the healthcare industry, International Journal of Electronic Finance, 2012, DOI: 10.1504/IJEF.2012.046593
Comments (3)
by Chris Boardman
Great thoughts but economic and regulatory reform will lead the way…not technology.
Entrenched interests who stand to loose control of the market and profits will spend their considerable resources to resist and squash such an endeavor.
That plus the reluctance of healthcare professionals to change their behavior creates a situation where technology, that provides innovative solutions, will face enormous resistance.
by Gorden Russell
Blood was drawn when I last went to the doctor’s. It might be a few years before your HP home computer can do lab tests…and by 2025 when they expect the big doctor shortage, robots will have the equal of 1,280 billiion neurons of processing power. That’s about 13 times a human brains. Every waiting room at the clinic will have a robodoc, with only a handful of human doctors to oversee the robots.
by GatorALLin
I always wondered if tools like GoToMeeting, or HD skype could/should be used to increase the number of doctor visits people should have. I know I hate waiting in the lobby for 30 minutes for my 30 minute yearly check up. Could a doctor see 3x as many patients per year (or patients who would otherwise miss appointments) if they could use online video tools to interact with. So many Americans don’t visit our primary care appointments regularly as we have been trained to only need the Dr. in emergencies vs. regular checkups.
We have robot arms able to do surgeries across the world… maybe we can also use internet software tools to improve the dr. visits and other things needed to get the most out of limited resources.