The health industry is already using social media to change how it works, whether through public health campaigns or virtual doctor’s visits on Skype. It’s also helped groups of people, such as patients suffering from the same condition, stay in touch, say Shannon Dosemagen of Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science and Lee Aase of Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media and its Social Media Health Network: “Social media has been responsible for relevant changes in both personal and community health, especially by making it easier for large numbers of people to rapidly share information.”
That’s not always a good thing: while social media does help official agencies and experts share important information fast – such as during a disease outbreak – it has a downside. “Social media is a two-way street, and allows non-experts to share information just as rapidly as health agencies, if not more so.” It’s this future that the health industry will need to plan for: “Health agencies need to have plans in place ahead of time to be able to respond to and counter misinformation or support accurate information shared via social media.”