Social Patient Engagement: Reaching Consumers where they

“are.”

Brad Tritle

Chair, HIMSS Social Media Task Force

Member, eConnecting with Consumers Committee

Contributing Editor, Engage! Transforming Healthcare Through Digital Patient Engagement

Director of Business Development, Vitaphone Health Solutions

HIMSS Social Media Task Force

– White Paper: Healthcare “Friending” Social Media

– Blogs and LinkedIn Discussions

– Social Media Chapter in book: Engage! Transforming Healthcare through Digital Patient Engagement

– New and Committed Members Welcome

Why is social media use important in healthcare? It’s where the patients “are” -

• Facebook: topped 1 billion users last September • http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443635404578036164027386112.html

• YouTube: 1 billion monthly users • http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2013/03/onebillionstrong.html

• Twitter: Over 500 million users • http://www.statisticbrain.com/twitter-statistics/

• LinkedIn: Over 200 million users • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn

• Facebook: Average U.S. user spent 6 hours and 40 minutes in January 2013

(not including notifications, which may be “always on”) • http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/newswire/2013/january-2013--top-u-s--entertainment-sites-and-web-brands.html

and -

- it’s where they seek health information,

• 25% of all adults have read someone else’s experience or commentary about health issues in a blog, news group, or website

• 19% have watched an online video about health issues

• 18% have consulted online reviews of drugs or medical treatments

• 12% have consulted online reviews of doctors or other providers

• 11% have consulted online reviews of hospitals or other facilities Source: Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project

and -

- it’s where they go to make decisions like these:

• 45% regarding whether to seek a second opinion

• 42% regarding how they deal with a chronic disease

• 42% regarding their approach to diet, exercise, and stress management

• 41% in their choice of a hospital, medical facility

• 41% in their choice of a specific doctor

• 34% regarding taking a certain medication

• 33% regarding undergoing a certain procedure or test

• 32% regarding choice of insurance

source: PwC’s Health Research Institute

It’s location, location, location! Go where your patients are!

Patients want to obtain/do the following on social media:

• 72% - availability of doctor appointments

• 71% - appointment reminders

• 70% - referral to specialists

• 69% - discounts or coupons for services

• 69% - continued support post-treatment/discharge

• 68% - voice complaints/seek customer service

• 68% - patient reviews of doctors

• 68% - treatment reminders

• 65% - current ER wait times

Source: PwC’s Health Research Institute

Why are we here? Sadly, healthcare still has a long way to

go • Last we knew:

– Less than 25% of hospitals had Facebook accounts

– Less than 25% of hospitals had claimed their existing FourSquare pages

• Source: Ed Bennett - http://ebennett.org/

But there are bright spots!!

How are Providers Using Social Media to Engage Patients

• Educate

– As teachers – blogs, videos

– As coaches/guides – referring to patient communities, educational videos

• Communicate – personal or community (including disasters)

• Manage their Online Reputations with Patients

• Market – with Returns on Investment

• Coordinate Care – Enterprise Social Media

• Monitor Patients – via devices feeding platforms

• Inspire! - Pinterest

Physician Blogs – Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson

http://seattlemamadoc.seattlechildrens.org/

– Dr. Bryan Vartabedian http://33charts.com/

– Dr. Howard Luks http://www.howardluksmd.com/

– Dr. Mike Sevilla http://www.familymedicinerocks.com/family-medicine-rocks-blog/

– Dr. Natasha Bugert http://kckidsdoc.com/

– Dr. Ted Eytan http://www.tedeytan.com/

Care Coordination? Yes, through private and secure Enterprise Social Platforms

Who else is engaging patients through social media?

?

Life Sciences

“On March 28, 2008, Children with Diabetes, Inc. …. joined the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies as part of the Diabetes Franchise.” http://www.childrenwithdiabetes.com/CWDJoinsJnJ.htm

Devices

Withings Unveils World’s First Internet Connected Baby and Toddler Scale Awarded with the prestigious 2012 CES Innovations Award, the Withings Smart Baby Scale is a new innovative device that finally extends connected weight tracking to newborns and children. Las Vegas Nevada, CES – January 8, 2012 -- Today, French technology company Withings is announcing its Internet-connected baby and toddler scale, the Withings Smart Baby Scale. With WiFi, Bluetooth and Bluetooth Smart (Bluetooth Low Energy) connectivity, it is the next evolution in home baby and toddler weight tracking. Withings has combined cutting edge technology and exquisite design to create a scale that will give parents all over the world a very simple to use and extremely accurate way to monitor, understand and share their child’s growth. Cedric Hutchings, Withings co-founder says, “We are very excited to announce our Smart Baby Scale and offer parents an amazing new way to take care of their newborn or young child. The success of our WiFi Body Scale has proven the benefits of connected weight tracking on adults and we were eager to also bring these benefits to babies and children. We are thrilled that our Smart Baby Scale was awarded the prestigious CES Innovation Award and this further reinforces our vision of designing smart communicating devices that help families take better charge of their health”. By using the Withings Smart Baby Scale, parents can access their child’s weight readings from any connected device, such as an Internet-connected computer or an iPad, iPhone or iPod touch using the already existing WiScale app. Also, parents can easily communicate the progress of their child’s weight with their doctor, pediatrician, family and friends.

The scale can be set to instantly update Facebook, Twitter or send an email to private email addresses with new readings. Parents can attach notes and photos to weight charts to build detailed memories of their child’s growth.

Payers

• HCC Medical Insurance Services trains its customer service reps to engage with customers via Facebook, blogs, Twitter, as well as online chat. – While some of our competitors were bailed out by the U.S. government, Forbes [Magazine] was

touting our parent company, HCC Insurance Holdings, Inc., as one of the five insurance companies best positioned to break out of the recession. In support of HCC's commitment to strong financial performance, we are looking to social media to reduce our operational costs, while maintaining strong customer relationships.

• Aetna CEO engages patient via Twitter – When Arijit Guha, a graduate student at Arizona State University, ran up against a $300,000 lifetime

limit on his Aetna plan while undergoing chemotherapy for Stage 4 colon Cancer, he decided to engage Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini on Twitter. The heated exchange resulted in calls to Guha to discuss his case, and ultimately Bertolini committed Aetna to meeting Guha’s medical bills through the end of the year.

Public Health – Wow!

• CDC: – 35 Twitter accounts,

– 12 Facebook profiles

– YouTube channel

– Flickr

– 21 blog categories

– 41 widgets (to put on your website)

– Publishes The Health Communicator’s Social Media Toolkit

Many state and local public health agencies are very active on social media – see the Engage! book and white paper for more information!

Let me introduce you to some champions!

How social media has changed my medical practice

by NATASHA BURGERT, MD on August 18th, 2011 in SOCIAL MEDIA at KevinMD.com

Last summer, I joined millions of others in the deluge of social media. I committed one year of effort to see if social would enhance or distract from my pediatric practice.

That was my goal, just one year.

At that time, I wanted to dip my foot in the pool, and see if it made any ripples. The unexpected consequence was how much social media has changed my medical practice, and me. Ripples have returned as tidal waves.

My practice has seen tangible, real valuable benefits. I have been intellectually challenged, and have professionally grown.

**Read the full case study in Engage! Transforming Healthcare through Digital Patient Engagement. Dr. Burgert acquires one new patient per week because of her blog = $140,000 in new revenue over two years!

Jen Brull, M.D.

“If I don’t friend my patients, I’ll have no friends and no patients.”

Dr. Jen Brull, a family physician from rural Kansas comes from such a close-knit community that friending some patients from her personal Facebook account seems natural, though she does so only with people with whom she has existing offline friendships, and who are cognizant of boundaries. According to Dr. Brull, there are myriad benefits as a result of these online relationships, such as catching the occasional symptom (sent to her through the FB messaging function) that may be much more serious than the patient realized, patients recognizing why she may not be in the office this week (e.g., business travel or vacation), and receiving feedback that can be copied into their chart (e.g., “Thank you for the medication. I’m sleeping much better.”). “Patients can legally disclose their own protected health information (PHI) without violating HIPAA, but if a conversation heads that direction, we quickly move them to another communication channel, such as the telephone or secure email.”

How do I get started?

• Determine your social media goals

• Determine your social media channels

• Be yourself

• Attend training sessions or conferences

• Know your boundaries

Source: HIMSS’ White Paper Healthcare Friending Social Media

And now – let’s hear from some more champions!!