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Joaquin Moreno

Jackie Burr, Instructor

English 2010, Section 3

12 April 2019

Technology, Social Media, Healthcare:

The Expansion of Healthcare Through Technology and Social Media.

Technology has become a key component in humans modern day life, its ability to avail

humans with effective tools and opportunities has made it very useful. As a result, in the world

of healthcare, technology is a predominant necessity. With humans seeking to get things done the

most effective way possible, technology helps these workers by fueling work efficiency. Along

with technology has come new machines with more power, more abilities, and greater

opportunities for humans. When dealing with patients, health doctors require the best devices

and machines to diagnose any form of medical problems correctly. Human error can still happen

but with technology, the chances of it are lowered and assessments of patients are more trusted

by doctors (Admin 607).

This help from technology does not end at machines, technology has also grown to create

social media which then opened doors for better connections between doctors and patients and

information sharing. There has been an increase in people in the modern time that believe social

media is negative and is poor to a users health, but the possibilities it creates in healthcare are

undeniable. In a world where patients and doctors are not always able to meet in person, social

media and electronics are able to construct a strong connection between the two, to fill in the
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gap. Through this expansion and growth, these two factors have created a modern type of

healthcare, where technology and social media is a given.

Computers, the internet, and treatment machines are all derived from technology, they are

also tools a doctor or worker at a healthcare center always needs to be able to get most of any

work done. These devices for most healthcare workers are so normally used that most workers

can't imagine doing their job without them. For example Ipads for tasks such as charting, or

computers for creating electronic prescriptions for patients. Tools like these effectively take

away the unnecessary waste of paper and time. In an interview with Ryan Burr a dermatologist

manager at The Derm Center, Burr suggested that if the internet at the dermatology building

were to ever cut out, or the machines were to stop working, they would likely have to shut

everything down and everybody would have to go home. Through the years the company has

evolved and become mostly internet/technology based. Resulting in Burr suggesting that there

would be no use or job without it. The majority of their ability to provide for their patients come

from their use of technology. Justifiably, for them, technology hasn't just become a beneficial

tool, it has become a backbone for their company.

While technology as a whole provides health centers and doctors with necessary modern

tools, social media acts as another tool by providing information and helpful connections to

patients. Social media is defined as being expansive interactive websites and services. This

creation has allowed people to communicate with more people through several forms of content.

Such as websites, online networks, and video call services. Through these forms of services and

content, users are able to share their own personal experiences with others (Janodia 1). Giving

doctors and patients connections that weren’t possible before.

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A very special form of service that has helped provide healthcare for patients around the

world through social media is telehealth. As suggested by Nurse Diane C. Schoen, and Professor

Katherine Prater in their article about this technology, telehealth is a way to provide healthcare

over long distances via video technology presented by social media. Patients who live in remote

areas where healthcare is hard to reach in person are now able to use telehealth to connect with

their doctors and get treated for any health-related issues. Using webcams or devices such as

smartphones, interactive talks with doctors and analysis of problems can be done with ease

through a camera and screen (43).

Telehealth opens doors for people that live in rural areas and don't have access to certain

healthcare anywhere near them. Not only them but also people that may simply be in another

state but still want to be able to talk with and get examined by the doctor they are comfortable

with. In the interview with Ryan Burr, discussion about telehealth also arose and Burr

exemplified the use of telehealth in his dermatology company. Burr had a patient that was in

another state and was unable to attend her appointment so Burr had her send pictures, talked with

her on the phone, and gave her an analysis of her medical problem. Despite being thousands of

miles away the connection between patient and doctor was still possible because of telehealth.

Through this, social media shows advanced connections between patients and doctors, further

advancing social media as a tool. A tool that not only simply provides connections with doctors

but also in other forms of content provides access to second opinions, stories to relate to, or

simply someone to talk to.

This accessibility becomes very useful for patients because they can easily keep up to

date on diseases, disorders, or medical problems they are possibly connected to and seek help
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from others online. Doctors don't have to be the only person that gives patients valuable

information, social media enables patients to access information from others like themselves.

Users share information to allow others to learn from their experiences. The online patient's

information may even give the user a review to not go to a certain doctor for special reasons. For

patients all over the world, social media acts as a great source to obtain information and

knowledge about healthcare and with their health in general.

There are endless forms of social media with different benefits and many different ways

to access them. The most popular form of social media is the application, or app for short. These

are the most commonly used due to them being mostly accessed through users phones, and for

the ordinary human living in this day and age that is almost always at hands reach. These

applications include, as many people may know, Youtube, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and

Snapchat. However, in a study done by The

Department of Public Health Management

and Technology, they carefully study and ask

400 patients in a hospital to see how much

social media was being used by patients and

how it has benefitted them. Their finding

suggests that the majority of the patients

studied and surveyed used social media to

become more knowledgeable and aware of

their own or other healthcare issues. Showing

that increasing knowledge was a very

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common reason for patient social media use (Al-Qahtani et al. 117-119). Resulting in a more

connected patient community that shares experiences, and improves on their doctor to patient

relationship.

In that same study, the team also dives into how social media is not only used by patients

but by healthcare providers and most importantly, doctors. The article suggests that the main

motivation healthcare providers have to use social media is to provide better quality healthcare.

When social media creates the opportunity to communicate with patients and coworkers, new

marketing possibilities, and obtaining up to date information on healthcare, it begins to seem like

the best way to be a great healthcare provider (Al-Qahtani et al.117). In today's modern

technology possibilities, it becomes necessary for high degree doctors to always stay up to date

and learn from new findings. If a doctor is not keeping up with new findings or medicine, they

could possibly be giving old information that no longer applies, making them unreliable.

This is extremely important for older doctors that didn’t grow up with or learn very well

how to use social media, they need to stay updated on the most recent facts to still be a useful

information source for their patients. However, it also matters and works the other way around.

New young doctors need to also stay in touch with the elders of their profession to learn from

their experiences and personal findings. The way that patients use social media to connect with

other patients appears to be the same way that doctors are able to connect with other doctors.

All different types of doctors are able to take advantage of social media and effectively

build a strong career and make good networking connections. In an article from the Departments

of Pathology and Dermatology, two pathologists, Jerad M. Gardner, and Philip H. Mckee,

discuss social media and how it has affected their careers. When asked why social media should
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be used in his generation and work profession, Gardner responds with, “Social Media has been a

robust tool for building my career. It has allowed me to network and develop professional

relationships with pathologists on a global level”(283). Gardner suggests that through his years

of using social media he has been able to create more connections and collaborate with other

doctors. The more networking he accomplished through social media, the more his career and his

name became bigger. Opportunities from social media such as meetings and invitations from

other doctors around the world have given him more recognition and put his name out there.

In the same article, Mckee expands on this and emphasizes that social media is how the

new generation communicates, reaching a larger population through it will happen inevitably.

This will also allow any doctor of any kind to learn and possibly teach others new information

(284). The fact that doctors have the ability to teach or to possibly fix misinformation online

through social media due to their profession, makes it very important for them to take action and

do so because nobody else can. Only they have the prestige of being a doctor to have information

that others will believe and trust on social media.

If nothing is done there could be tons of misinformation floating around social media that

patients and users of any kind may believe. Mike Sevilla, a family physician, and a pioneer of

connecting social media with doctors gave a Ted talk about his life with social media. Sevilla is a

strong user of blogs, podcasts, facebook, twitter, etc. and plans to inspire other doctors to use

social media with their profession to push forward the connection between doctors and patients.

In his speech, Sevilla quotes another doctor who had told him, “Physicians have an obligation to

share what they know on social media”(qtd. in Lecture). Followed by a moment of silence,

Sevilla shows a strong belief in this statement by telling of his experiences with physicians and
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patients through the years.. Being a doctor Sevilla expresses that he will use his abilities and

tools to improve the health and knowledge of others, something he believes is necessary. Doctors

have so much power and tools that it would be a waste for them not to use as many ways that

they can to connect with others and truly provide great healthcare.

Doctor Sevilla not only expresses the power that doctors possess but the power that social

media and new age technology possess. It is becoming a huge part of this modern world and a

very strong implementation into healthcare. Social Media and technology have the power to

make a change, Sevilla, other doctors, patients, and people who believe in healthcare are now

becoming aware of this and taking action.

Despite many people around the world believing social media can be a negative in

modern life, the positives it can provide for healthcare greatly outweighs those negatives, and it

does so with facts and evidence. After discovering how patients and doctors use social media and

what for, healthcare overall seems to have grown a dependency on technology that cannot be

denied. Through patients and doctors agreeing that social media is providing endless positives

for healthcare, the evidence is strong and present. Providing connections that weren’t possible

before, allowing for better work efficiency, giving doctors the ability to teach others or learn

from others, or allowing their company or name to grow. Social media and technology provide

opportunities and possibilities that wouldn’t exist without them. These tools, both connected to

each other, found their place in healthcare and will only expand and grow through it, resulting in

a mirrored future for healthcare, expanding it and allowing it to grow and become something

great and obtainable to any healthcare patient.

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Works Cited:

Admin 607. “Development of Technology in Healthcare.” Healthcare Science and Technology, 2

Jan.

2013, http://www.gescienceprize.org/development-of-technology-in-healthcare/

Al-Qahtani, Mona, et al. “Social Media in Healthcare: Advantages and Challenges Perceived by

Patients at a Teaching Hospital in Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia.” Saudi Journal for

Health Sciences, vol. 7, no. 2, May 2018, pp. 116–120. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.4103/sjhs.sjhs_36_18.

Burr, Ryan. Telephone Interview. 10 April 2019.

Gardner, Jerad M., and Phillip H. McKee. “Social Media Use for Pathologists of All Ages.”

Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, vol. 143, no. 3, Mar. 2019, pp. 292–286.

EBSCOhost, doi:10.5858/arpa.2018-0431-ED.

Janodia, Manthan D. “Regulating Social Media for Accessing Healthcare Information.” Manipal

Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, vol. 4, no. 1, Mar. 2018, pp. 1–2. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=130931012&site=ehost-live.

Sevilla, Mike. “Medical Professionals and Social Media.” TED. Feb. 2015. Lecture

Schoen, Diane C., and Katherine Prater. “Role of Telehealth in Pre-Anesthetic Evaluations.”

AANA Journal, vol. 87, no. 1, Feb. 2019, pp. 43–49. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=134571860&site=ehost-live.