Social Media, ePatients and Health Care Providers

The introduction of smart phones and social media websites has opened a whole new way of socializing with family and friends. The question in debate is: Is it ok to socialize via Facebook or Twitter with healthcare providers? There is no wrong or right answer to this question since people have different opinions about it, but I believe that as long as we do it in the correct way it is a step forward to incorporate patients in the management of their health and obtain better treatment outcomes. Even though it is true that some people use social media to publish unacceptable behaviors and health care providers may want to protect their privacy; it is also true that this new way of socializing can help to build up long term relationships between patients and Pharmacists or Physicians which for sure would influence patients decisions about their health in a positive manner. There is good example in the Journal of Participatory Medicine where they talk about how we are going a step forward with social media and two steps back with hospitals regulations prohibiting patients from being friends on Facebook with physicians. With these actions we are not taking advantage of technology to help patients. Our job as Pharmacists is to advocate for our profession and educate our patients on how to use social media in a professional way in order to build long term relationships with them and better influence their treatment decision process.

The Real GAME CHANGER!!!

There are many web resources to look up health information and a large percentage of the population is starting to take advantage of them and participate in the patient-provider interaction as stated before. However the majority of people don’t go everywhere carrying their desktops or laptop computers because they are just too big and not easy to transport during the entire day. A few years ago the introduction of smart phones came about to overcome this accesses barrier and today we have internet access anytime and anyplace we want. Web 2.0 is the real game changer in this new era of patient participation in their treatment decision process. While regular web accesses is a one way interaction where patients are on their own finding what they need; mobile web is a dynamic, pushing and collaborating system where the patient and health care providers can participate during the information seeking activity. Today patients are not only updated with health information but they also have the information right in front of them to show it to the Pharmacist or Physician any time. This innovation is making health care providers to be even more prepared, make use of their knowledge and collaborate in order to satisfy patients’ needs. It is very important for us as Pharmacists to be familiar with all the applications related to health and updated with new treatments so we can help our patients to make use of this new technology and participate in their health management.

The role of the Pharmacist in this new era

Pharmacists play an important role in this emerging era where patients are becoming proactive in their treatment decision. It is true that patients can find lots of information online and come to us with a good understanding of what to expect from their medication treatments, but they still need the Pharmacist to let them know if the information found is accurate. There are many resources in the web, but it is our job to be prepared and updated with new information to complement the knowledge of our patients with important facts that they could be missing or misunderstanding. In addition Pharmacists need to be knowledgeable regarding the different online resources that are available to patients, so we can help them self manage their health the correct way. Our role is to provide websites and mobile applications where they could find information regarding pharmacology, adverse reactions, monitoring parameters and make it understandable to them. This will help us to increase patient compliance; decrease errors and monitor specify key points in each person’s therapy to increase medications outcomes.

What does the statistics tell us?

It is very important to understand the population statistics with respect to health information seeking online in order to know how are patients reacting to this whole new way of managing their treatment decisions and overall health. The Statistics say that 83 % of online adults are searching for health information which is 61% of the total population. As we can see this is high number which means that more people are engaging in this innovative behavior. Other important facts are that 45% of people looked for information about OTC and Rx medications respectively in 2008 as opposed to35 % in 2002 and 66% looked for a specific disease medical problem. These numbers take us to the most important one which is 60 % of e-patients said health information found online affected their treatment decision. This data is telling us that a whole new era is emerging and more patients are starting to fall into the category called e-patients. The doctor centric model of the past is being replaced by new model which is patient-centric and proactive (Zerhouni).

Are patients ready for this new era?

We have three major factors that are affecting the way patients look for health information online: Accsses ,Literacy and Personal responsability. Access is not such a big barrier as it was years ago. As of this year 74% of the US population has internet access, but  we still have 26% of people who are not quite getting into the change and we dont know how long it is going to take for them to adapt to these innovations of technology. eHealth Literacy plays an important  role in which patients are using internet to manage their health. Many patients with internet access dont know where to look up health information or dont have the skills necessary to get good health care access online. Finally if the patient feels that it is his or her personal responsability to manage their health ,they will look up information to share with the provider during the interaction. Unfortunatelly some patients feel that the physicians have the authority when recommending treatments and managing their health. Again, there are many factors affecting how people engage in managing their health online. It may take some time until 100% of the population start making use of the technological resources available.

The future of health management

Being an ePatient is now part of the daily life of a big portion of the US population. This term refers to patients that are using technology to manage their health without the presence of a health care provider .The increased accessibility and introduction of technological resources are leading patients to start taking an active participatory role in managing their diseases and treatments. The availability of websites and apps to look for health information and the introduction of smart phones are making a difference in the way people relate to their health care providers. The paternalistic approach to medicine that was evident years ago is now turning into a shared decision making process where patients and health care providers are partners and contribute to satisfy each other’s needs and expectations. Although we still have a small percentage of the population that doesn’t have access to the internet for different reasons , the future is coming with more innovations and grow in technology to change all of us into ePatients.