"Social Medicine:" A Look At Physician Use of Social Media
As part of MediaVitals 2014, CMI surveyed nearly 2200 physicians across specialties to understand their use, preferences and overall satisfaction across devices and channels – including social.
While a vast majority of responders use social channels for both personal and professional purposes, what we found was that 61% of physician responders use social media solely for professional! This equates to both collaborating with their individual patients as well as with their peers. In fact, 90% of those who stated to use social media for professional purposes also stated that they are likely to turn to these sources (and peers) when needing answers to medically relevant questions that are either immediate (requiring answers within 10 minutes), non-immediate (requiring answers within one or two days) or longer term in nature to satisfy their patient-support, educational and professional needs. Additionally, 88% of these users stated that they post original ideas, comment and/or read others’ posts for professional purposes in specific social sites including LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, QuantiaMD, Medscape Physician Connect, Doximity, Sermo, Doctor's Hangout, Doctor's Lounge, Within3, CardioExchange, Instagram, and a few others that were self-specified. What's even more fascinating is that 72% actually use 3 or more of these social sites. Finally, 62% of these users state to communicate with their patients via email, text or chat using a combination of devices including laptops/desktops, tablets and smartphones!
These are substantial percentages in terms of usage, which must be considered by anyone in the Healthcare industry looking to build their professional engagement strategy with Doctors – which should include listening to their needs as well as responding to them with information and support tools that enable these social doctors to quickly get information they need either in their own hands or in the hands of their patients
