July 2010 Blog Posts (28)

Social media in healthcare community provides an access to a forum where patients, healthcare professionals and organizations can share timely information on symptoms, treatments and surgeries. Here are the top three ways that healthcare organizations utilize social media to engage and interact with their patients and healthcare providers (see…

I posted a few weeks ago on how hospitals are using social media to create a stronger brand. The Mayo Clinic is taking that a step further by opening a Center for Social Media that will “train other health care organizations to use Twitter, YouTube and Facebook to connect patients and doctors,” according to…

The NHS is implementing a new summary care record (SCR) whereby all patients’ medical details are to be uploaded to a national electronic database. The aim of the SCR is to improve the safety and quality of

patient care by giving staff easier access to reliable information about you.

Each patient’s SCR will be built up slowly - every time you use any NHS health service, details will be added to your SCR about health problems, with…

Being able to communicate with brands and celebrities is what has drawn numerous people to join social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Now, not only can you tweet at the New York Times, thanking them for information about the new iPhone, you can also communicate with your doctor in the same sitting. As seen in this article…

Long wait times in the ER can be scary for patients. It can mean the difference between life and death. Hospitals across the country are closely monitoring ER wait times in hopes of attracting more and more patients and improving patient care. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, some hospitals in Utah are going so far as to display those wait times on websites, Twitter and billboards. It's a pretty interesting concept, and a spokeperson for one of the hospitals using this method affirms its…

Amid the national push for electronic medical records, one of the most intense debates is whether a patient should be permitted to see their doctors’ notes online.…

This week The New York Times covered a somewhat surprising new twist in the use of electronic health records (EHRs): starting in 2015, hospitals and doctors will be subject to financial penalties under Medicare if they are not using electronic health records. Even more…

I saw an interesting tweet this afternoon from Lahey Clinic of Burlington, Mass. The hospital apparently is in the process of rebuilding its website, and it's asking the public to offer suggestions.

This is what Lahey posted on Twitter: Question - What do you want from a Hospital website? We're rebuilding...…

http://www.brafton.com/industry-news/marketers-may-offer-remedy-healthcare-moves-toward-online-marketing-$19883952.htm

Interesting article on physicians and their stance in the social media landscape. According to the piece, "USA Today reports that the American Medical Association's Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs recently…

There's another healthcare application for the iPhone: the KidsDoc iPhone app, which is based on a triage system used in children's hospitals and nurse advice call centers, and created by a pediatrician. According to U.S. News & World Report, the system this app is based on has been tested for 15 years among more than 150 million phone calls. The app provides information…

I came across an interesting article from HealthDay highlighting a California study that finds patients with diabetes, hypertension, or both who engage in email exchanges with their doctors received better care and better health outcomes. The study…

This morning I found Medgadet’s new “HealCam” announcement, and was extremely refreshed with the premise. If you are familiar with…