why have physicians (for the most part)
been reluctant to embrace
online engagement?
the conversation is happening, without us
people share their weight, run times, blood sugar, and more online
Health Information Systems & Social Networks:
What Convergence Looks Like

Nicholas Genes
March 30, 2011
privacy
giving patients a voice is painful
closing in on 600 million users
71% of US web users have a FB account
about half log in, daily

average user spends 7 hours / month on FB
10% of all minutes online are on FB

Google is still #1 referrer to top media sites
but FB is gaining, likely to displace

And why not? FB mirrors how people share news in real life
February 28, 2011 Hospitals Missing Opportunities in Social Media:
Results of First Study on How Hospitals Use Facebook

Only 8 of 120 hospitals (6%) had more than 10,000 fans.
Over 50% of the sample (70 of 120) had less than 1000 members.

Children’s hospitals typically had significantly more fans
Children’s Hospital of Boston leads with 465,073 fans

Less than 40% of hospitals posted daily; 25% posted at least 2x/wk
6 had a presence but no activity at all on Facebook.

Only 5% of hospitals used the ‘Wall’ to post hospital events.

80% of hospitals did not use Facebook’s discussion boards.

63% of hospitals had no unsolicited feedback or questions on their pages.
As of Twitter's 5th Anniversary...

one billion tweets per week
(it took 3 years to get to the first billion)

200 million "accounts"
500,000 new accounts per day

26 million mobile users
about 1/3 in USA

450 TPS when Michael Jackson died
7000 TPS during New Year's 2010/11

Ten celebrities have over 5 million followers
CNN Breaking News is top ranking source (4 million)
366 accounts have 1+ million followers
what does it mean to "like" an academic medical center?
what would an ED tweet about?
community news, health tips, valuable in crisis
feedback for patients?
liability
and we have a lot to share.
evidence?
(public version)
questions? 

thank you!