Good presentation for healthcare marketers from Pew Internet Project Director Lee Rainie on understanding social networking and online health information seeking. You can view the presentation here.
Key takeaways:
• new social operating system: networked individualism
• impacts include: “second opinions, allies and complements for care delivery, providers assessed and judged in public ways”
• empowered and engaged: 61% getting health info on line, 29% contributing, 19% consult rankings/reviews of providers and hospitals
• relevancy of mobile: 63% of adults, 50% have apps on phone, 29% have mobile health apps
• searching for health: 48% for others, 36% for self
• affecting decisions: 60% say information found online affected decision about how to treat, 56% say it changed overall approach to maintaining their health, 53% say it lead to ask doctor new questions, 49% say it changed the way they think about diet, exercise, stress management, 38% say it affected decision to see a doctor
• three levels of physicians as “nodes” in e-patient communities: act as sentries, act as trusted/wise companion, act as helpful producers/enablers
• at the end of the day: 41% say they’ve been helped via online medical advice or information, 3% say they’ve been harmed
