Social Networking and Application to Veterinary Medicine

Okay, I have to admit this is one of those topics that I would have never imagined writing about. That said, just three days ago, I would not have imagined writing a blog? What possible could be the root of all this upheaval in my life!

Current I am enrolled in coursework with the Healthcare Informatics Certification Program at the University of California, Davis Extension. For this quarter, I am enrolled in a class titled Internet and the Future of Patient Care. I came to the course with thoughts centered on all the sophisticated and techno-geeky stuff. Cloud-computing, Electronic Health Records, systems integration… visions dancing through my head.

Well right “off the bat” – we are setting up a blog page researching sites on internet usage and topics on Social Networking… – all leading me in a completely different direction. Naturally, I want to take the veterinary spin on things and determine how all this information could possibly have applications to our delivery of care. How can Facebook and Twitter have any impact of healthcare as it relates to veterinary medicine?

With the research I am finding that perhaps there is more to this Social Networking then I was lead to believe – could there actually be some redeeming value here, an application tool?
According to the Pew Internet & Life Project study - The Democratization of Online Social Networks, Social Networking has entered mainstream with use rising from around 10% (2007) to nearly ½ of the US adult population by December 2009. Interesting to note that, the numbers of new users more than doubled in the past year alone. I cannot imagine that ½ the adult population is just sitting around talking about weekend plans, and “poking” each other.

An article for Veterinary Economics Online networking can have clinical value, cites (Telemedicine and e-Health) the benefits of social networks to patient and healthcare organizations. Specifically social networks offer a rapid alerting system on medical warnings, updates even disease surveillance, basically a great client education tool. An additional benefit that was initially lost on me was the power of collaboration and peer discussion.

Recently I admonished an associate for sharing a case on her Facebook site. This of course was short sighted on my part as many of her “friends” happen to be veterinarians. She was excited to share her experience and the case made for a great opportunity to review and discuss care and progress. Ultimately this outlet serves as informal case rounds. Additionally, great success stories and description of care presents an excellent opportunity for the hospital to showcase the quality of care that is provided.

The take home for me is that social network sites (SNS) contains some of the same elements that I feel are essential to the future of healthcare – information exchange and collaboration (colleagues and client/patients).

Of course the SNS are not immune to the needs of protecting the patient (and client) as well as the practice. Instead of admonishing, it is more important to provide clear ground rules. It is important that guidelines surrounding patient privacy and client confidentiality as well as disclaimers of opinion should be written policy in the employee handbook as indicated in article, (When employees get on Facebook). Bottom line is that SNS are going to continue to be a part of our lives. Considering that most of us are just gaining exposure, it will be interesting to watch and see how it morphs...