Workshop presentation by Pat Rich, online editor for the Canadian Medical Association, to the Canadian Society of Physician Executives, June 1 meeting, Vancouver.
Articles
Why Texting Patients Works: The Health Belief Model
With the rise of cell phone usage, smart and otherwise, many health care providers, researchers and entrepreneurs alike have assumed that this ubiquitous technology can be used to improve health and wellbeing. Entrepreneurs have led the charge and so the common catch phrase “there’s an app for that” underscores the fact that nearly 17, 000 health related apps are available either for free or a small charge for Android or Apple users.
Young people are perhaps the best targets of our mhealth efforts because they are eager users of mobile technology. However two questions arise naturally: 1) does data show that these apps lead to improved outcomes? 2) is there a theory of how we might use cell phones to improve health outcomes?
Read article on thehealthcareblog.com
How To Make Your Content More Shareable (Infographic)
Predicting success for new drugs using Social Media analysis
Social media can predict the success of a new drug launch much faster than traditional methods. Many pharmaceutical companies try to measure the success of their launch based on weekly script trends. The difference between social media data and data derived from prescriptions is significant: social media data can predict the future, while script data record the past.
Social media can also, to some degree, explain events and not just record them, since patient posts are much more nuanced than purchase data, often sharing the why and not just the what.
Using older methods, it can take years to understand the result and impact of a new drug launch. Today social media can provide early vital signals in real time.
To illustrate this, let’s look at Tecfidera (formerly called BG-12 during clinical trials), a new multiple sclerosis drug that Biogen launched on April 13 [through an examination of the patient voice from billions of patient-written social media posts on over 2,000 health blogs and forums].
Interestingly, since the launch of Tecfidera in mid-April, the most talked about MS drug in social media has been Tecfidera, bypassing all other MS medications and growing on a daily basis. We also see significant differences between Tecfidera discussions and that of other MS medications in that 36% of the Tecfidera discussions are on Facebook while for other MS medications only 28% of the discussions are taking place on Facebook (our analysis does not include Twitter).
See on treato.com
Doctors and Social Oncology: Trends in physician conversations
See on Scoop.it – Health Care Social Media Monitor
One of the key findings of the MDigitalLife Social Oncology Report 2013 was that cancer conversations have become increasingly fragmented, specific and specific and sophisticated. The number of journal articles posted to PubMed has increased 349% since 1999 – and the number of cancer-related conversations has exploded in similar fashion. As those cancer-specific conversations continue to grow, we wanted to take a closer look at the physicians who are driving them. This is the first in a series of 4 posts on the subject, which will hone in on doctors’ conversations about breast cancer, gynecological cancers, prostate cancer, skin cancer, and lung cancer.
Marie Ennis-O’Connor‘s insight:
Interesting findings:
While breast cancer does drive the largest volume of physician conversations, the difference is not nearly so severe as it is among the general populace – and in fact is now rivaled by prostate cancer and skin cancer.The fastest-growing conversations are around gynecological cancers, and focus primarily on the issue of HPV vaccine. It will be interesting to monitor whether the awareness levels afforded these cancers (especially cervical cancer) during this period are sustainable, or whether they’ll fall to 2012 levels.Skin cancer conversations are highly seasonal, and reflect the fact that physicians have done an excellent job of focusing on the “high-risk, low-effort” prevention topics that make up so many of our ailments (e.g., wear sunscreen, give your kids swimming lessons, make sure to vaccinate your kids, etc.)Lung cancer, despite continuing to represent an enormous health risk, is lagging in terms of effective advocacy – due, we believe, to the current political incorrectness of its common association with smoking.
See on blog.wcgworld.com
How to be Participatory in the Face of Adversity | e-Patients.net
See on Scoop.it – Health Care Social Media Monitor
From the lens of a patient who recently experienced major surgery, I now realize how difficult it is to be participatory when you are in pain and taking large
See on e-patients.net
The medical conversations are happening on Twitter, not Facebook, and that’s a good thing
See on Scoop.it – Health Care Social Media Monitor
Twitter has become the home where medical conversations are happening between physicians.
See on www.imedicalapps.com
HealthTap launches ‘AppRx’ so you can get app recommendations from real doctors
See on Scoop.it – Health Care Social Media Monitor
Health Q&A startup HealthTap has added a new feature to its popular mobile apps called AppRx that lets doctors recommend high-quality medical mobile apps to everyday users.
See on venturebeat.com
Social Media for Oncologists
See on Scoop.it – Health Care Social Media Monitor
Today we discuss the dissemination of research results, clinical trials, and other oncology news using social media, as well as what type of media oncologists use, how useful and relevant this type of information is for most oncologists, and where oncologists can plug into information and communication sources. We speak with Michael A. Thompson, MD, PhD, who was the medical director of cancer research at ProHealth Care Regional Cancer Center, in Wisconsin, and clinical trials lead investigator of the NCI Community Cancer Centers Program.
See on member.ubmmedica.com
Social media use among patients and caregivers [BMJ Open. 2013]
Abstract
To map the state of the existing literature evaluating the use of social media in patient and caregiver populations.
Studies reporting primary research on the use of social media (collaborative projects, blogs/microblogs, content communities, social networking sites, virtual worlds) by patients or caregivers.
Two reviewers screened studies for eligibility; one reviewer extracted data from relevant studies and a second performed verification for accuracy and completeness on a 10% sample. Data were analysed to describe which social media tools are being used, by whom, for what purpose and how they are being evaluated.
RESULTS:
Two hundred eighty-four studies were included. Discussion forums were highly prevalent and constitute 66.6% of the sample. Social networking sites (14.8%) and blogs/microblogs (14.1%) were the next most commonly used tools. The intended purpose of the tool was to facilitate self-care in 77.1% of studies. While there were clusters of studies that focused on similar conditions (eg, lifestyle/weight loss (12.7%), cancer (11.3%)), there were no patterns in the objectives or tools used. A large proportion of the studies were descriptive (42.3%); however, there were also 48 (16.9%) randomised controlled trials (RCTs). Among the RCTs, 35.4% reported statistically significant results favouring the social media intervention being evaluated; however, 72.9% presented positive conclusions regarding the use of social media.
CONCLUSIONS:
There is an extensive body of literature examining the use of social media in patient and caregiver populations. Much of this work is descriptive; however, with such widespread use, evaluations of effectiveness are required. In studies that have examined effectiveness, positive conclusions are often reported, despite non-significant findings.
See on www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Health Care Social Media 