Social Media in the Medical Industry

Careful and conservative attitude

Those in the medical field tend to be conservative and careful about social media. This is understandable.  By writing something that is stored in cyberspace forever, health care providers and medical organizations open themselves up to potential lawsuits now or 20 years from now.

While social media is being adopted by some organizations in the medical industry (e.g., the Mayo Clinic) very effectively, in general, it seems that health care is slow to jump on the social media bandwagon.  Health care providers are concerned about opening themselves up to negativity and lawsuits (easy for this to happen in that field) and don’t see the need yet to invest time and resources in developing social media strategies.  

Little “need” to engage

The medical industry is different from other industries where attracting clients or customers is important.  There are always sick people, always the need for more qualified doctors and nurses.  Consequently, medical organizations don’t see the need to engage with their audience through social media. There isn't really a strong motivation for this.  Yet. No-risk, one-way dissemination of information suffices at the moment.

Potential for social media in the medical industry

However, there is great potential for those in the medical industry to use social media to collect feedback from patients, warn people of epidemics, provide information on what to do during flu season, collaborate with colleagues, use video blogging to explain what to do in a medical emergency, receive thanks, get suggestions for improvement, and so on.  It’s just slow to happen. 

Other priorities

There are so many other complex issues to deal with in the medical field and no lack of patients that social media engagement has had to take backstage to more pressing issues.  Perhaps social media could be used towards solving problems such as wait times, numbers of qualified doctors, medical errors, and research and development.  

Any ideas? I would love to hear how social media could be used by the medical industry to solve problems.