Social media presents both opportunities and obstacles for healthcare. It allows for marketing of healthcare services, engagement with patients, and sharing of general health information. However, healthcare is a highly regulated industry, and privacy laws limit what patient information can be shared online. Additionally, many healthcare providers are slow to adopt social media due to regulations and lack of education. While social media can help improve communication between doctors and patients, providers must balance the benefits with the time commitment required. Overall, used appropriately social media may enhance healthcare engagement and outcomes when policies ensure privacy and information sharing complies with all regulations.

1. Social Media & Healthcare:
Opportunities & Obstacles

2. Why Social Media & Healthcare
Social media “likes” healthcare: From marketing to social business – PWC
Driving Engagement through Social Media for Healthcare Providers
Health Care Needs a Dose of Social Media – CNBC
Social Media For Healthcare – Sharing is Caring
The doctor will see you now: How the Internet and social media are changing
healthcare
• How to Overcome Obstacles in Healthcare Implementing a Social Media Program
• 4 ways social media can transform doctor-patient communication
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These are the articles that come up when I search for “Social Media & Healthcare”. All
of them are well written & are from credible sources.

3. Social Media & Healthcare – Thumbs Up
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Social media has invaded health care from at least three fronts:
 Innovative startups
 Patient communities
 Medical centers
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Health 2.0 movement has nurtured dozens of startups with creative concepts to revolutionize
health care: tools from vertical search and social networks to health content aggregators and
wellness tools
Patient communities are flourishing in an environment rich with social networks, both
through mainline social communities and condition-specific communities
Hospitals and Academic Medical Centers are diving into the social media mix with more than
300 YouTube channels and 500 Twitter accounts. They are taking on monitoring and
monetization of social media

4. Social Media & Healthcare – Thumbs Up
• Lexington Medical Center went outside of the box with the 2012 Pink Glove Dance,
a video competition, using YouTube, where the prizes are awarded as donations to
breast cancer charities, to attract attention to itself, engaging practically the entire
state of South Carolina
• The fascinating idea of using Twitter to share live broadcasts of surgical procedures.
The first was a tumor removal operation that took place in 2009 at Henry Ford
Hospital in Detroit
• Seattle Children’s hospital excels on Facebook through their highly visual cover
image and posts. They also encourage active blogging and have 4 separate blogs
that appeal to different audiences including a blog for autism, teens, and medical
reports

5. Social Media & Healthcare – Thumbs Up
Social Media Today recently posted an
article applauding the social media
efforts of Johns Hopkins. The buildings
were under construction and the social
media team created an interactive
Facebook tab to learn about the
buildings, take a video tour, and even
take a quiz about the building’s
construction, "that page drove over 20%
of new Facebook likes”

6. Social Media & Healthcare – Opportunities & Obstacles
• Healthcare like Finance are two of the highest regulating and monitoring industries
making organizations slow to adopt social media
• According to a 2011 survey by AMN Healthcare only 8 percent of physicians said
they use social media at work to connect with patients
• The 2011 Deloitte Report shows that only 14% of U.S. hospitals are using social
media and social networking as an external facing marketing & communication tool
• Interestingly enough in that same Deloitte study, 60% of physicians surveyed and
65% of nurses are interested in using social networks for professional purposes

7. Social Media & Healthcare – Opportunities & Obstacles
• HIPPA Privacy Concerns
 Communications between health care providers and their patients are subject to the Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
 A safe and easy way for doctors to use social media is to spread good health information, address
common medical questions and share interesting developments in the medical world
 Promoting wellness is a win-win; medical information relevant to many is provided without specific
medical advice for a patient's medical condition
 According to Lee Aase, Mayo Clinic’s Director for Social Media, aside from posting general health
information, it is also important to offer content that invites patient involvement
 They do a ‘Myth or Matter of Fact’ feature each week in connection with their Saturday radio
program in which they post a frequently heard saying about a disease or condition &
then invite users to say whether they think the statement is true or whether it is a
myth. The answer is revealed on the page after radio program airs

8. Social Media & Healthcare – Opportunities & Obstacles
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Education
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Obstacle: Not knowing how to use social media tools or being overwhelmed by the lingo and regulations
can be intimidating
Providing education and opportunities for health care professionals to learn how to best use and
incorporate social media in their work is an important first step
Mayo Clinic, a pioneer in using social media in health care, launched its own Center for Social Media after
so many hospitals and physicians turned to them for social media advice
Technical health jargon makes it difficult for consumers to connect with their health. There's great
information on medical charts, but consumers can't read them, so why not create a visual health report? A
20-page whitepaper about hypertension is useless, but a personalized infographic that's intuitive and
simple can help them visualize a story about their individual health
Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, thinks engaging with patients via social media is a
great way to empathize with those who need comfort, not just provide health news
Users love photos and [success] stories, [especially those] that showcase team’s
compassion and ability to go above and beyond for a family

9. Social Media & Healthcare – Opportunities & Obstacles
• Time
 Obstacle: Social media adds one more thing to a doctor’s already busy schedule
 The doctor-patient relationship relies on communication
 New technology is changing how we communicate with each other, just as the telephone and email
did, but faster
 The effort is however worth it, Lawrence Shapiro, Ph.D., President of Talk to An Expert, Inc., a
HIPAA-compliant e-therapy company that launched quite recently, says “online therapy will help
serve the nearly 3 out of 4 people who have mental health problems but do not currently get any
kind of help,”
 “It is particularly important for people who cannot get to an office for conventional help because
they are housebound, in remote areas, physically disabled, and so on. Online therapy lowers the bar
for people who need help.”

10. Social Media & Healthcare – Opportunities & Obstacles
• Benefits v. costs
 Overall physicians using social media have found the benefits outweigh the costs
 Dr. Swanson uses her blog and YouTube videos to address common questions parents ask, allowing
her to focus more time on the unique medical issues of her patients during their office visit
 Dr. Alice Ackerman, a pediatrician and college professor from Virginia Tech University, discovered, it
doesn’t take a huge following to make a difference. After a year of blogging she had an average of
4.5 readers per day
 One day a reader sent her the following tweet – “Dr. Ackerman is the person who changed my mind
once I read her blog and her links. I had no idea that info existed.” If you only make a difference in
just one person, isn’t that enough of a benefit?
 The obstacle is insurers don’t cover the time and energy doctors put into using social media to help
their patients
 By demonstrating the business case for social media beyond traditional
marketing and communication, one can showcase real value

11. Social Media & Healthcare – Conclusion
• The middle ground and the bottom line: social media and healthcare can go hand in hand
• Most hospitals and medical institutions provide healthcare social media policies for their physicians
and staff, and as long as these guidelines are respected, social media is a great tool to bring
patients and doctors together
• The world today is technologically driven, and it’s in our best interest – whether you’re a physician
catering to your patients’ queries or an individual seeking proper medical treatment – to keep up
with these advancements, especially when it comes to accessing healthcare
• The Internet needs to be taken with a grain of salt, and in the case of healthcare, it’s in everyone’s
interest to proceed with caution and skepticism
• Also, not every activity is about ROI. However, business for healthcare can be generated depending
on what all you view as business. A happy consumer that recommends you or ends up being a loyal
customer is business. So is attracting potential consumers via your
informational social presence

12. Social Media & Healthcare – ROI
So are we saying that there is no ROI from social media activities?
Is there anyway we can generate leads from social media?
Is it only for engagement purpose?
Can we measure the ROI from social media, if any?

13. Social Media & Healthcare – Social Influence in Purchase Decision

14. Social Media & Healthcare – Social Influence in Purchase Decision
Key Point when it comes to
reaching decision makers
and influencers

15. Success Secret 1: Capitalize on Existing Demand
Hot leads related to
medical devices, patient
advocacy, etc.
More than 11,000 groups
for the Healthcare Industry

16. Success Secret 2: Inducing Demand
Discussion initiated on LinkedIn resulting in an inquiry

17. How do you do this?
Research
• Identify Quality LinkedIn groups
• Approx. 11,000 LinkedIn groups for Healthcare
Domain
Reach
• Scout for Conversations across all identified Groups
• 15-20 discussions are initiated daily on each LinkedIn
Group
React
• Start discussions to engage target audience in
Groups
• React and Respond to their enquiries

18. Success Secret 3: Target your Exact Customers via LinkedIn Ads
Exact Job
Designation
Age
Targeting Criterion
Seniority
Targeting Criterion
Skills &
Expertise
Industry
Job
Function
Targeting Criterion

19. Success Secret 4: Revive Passive Customers & Remarket
Reach new
customers and
existing
customers who
haven’t
converted via
LinkedIn mail
Incentivize them
to convert
Constant follow
up

20. Success Secret 5: Loyalty Building
Have an Existing
Database of
Customers already?
Use them to influence
their peers via the
power of LinkedIn
Groups
All aspects of the Group – from creation, to nurturing, to monitoring are handled by
our team

21. Some Examples

22. Success Secret 6: Content is King
Create a Fully
Branded Company
Page
Engage with
Target Audience
via planned
Content themes
Leverage the
Power of
Customer
Recommendations

23. Success Secret 7: Measure, Measure and Measure
Key Metrics
No. of Leads Identified
Referral and Direct Traffic Redirected to the Website
Size of the Sales Funnel
Size of the Social Community

24. Thank You