Impact of SocialServices
Wipro Consulting Media in Healthcare
Transforming Healthcare
through Social Media
www.wipro.com
Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 3
Why is social media important in Healthcare? ................................................................ 4
Prevalent models of social media engagements in the healthcare industry ..... 6
Key concerns in using social media in Healthcare ......................................................... 7
The future implications of social media on Healthcare .............................................. 7
Contents
Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 8
About the author ......................................................................................................................... 9
References ......................................................................................................................... 9
2 Impact of Social Media in Healthcare www.wipro.com
Introduction
Social media has moved beyond being a
tool for young individuals to share their
private lives (pictures, messages) to
fostering serious discussion on technology
and business. Increasingly driven by
regulatory pressures, the need “get it right
the first time” and minimize costs remains
a concern in the healthcare industry.
Customer feedback to improve business
has thus become very important. User
generated content in the form of peer
reviews on service/ products often paves
the way for businesses to understand any
unique requirements as well as pain points
of the existing services they provide.
Social media is making interactions
between end users and service providers
possible by providing relatively simple, easy
to access (one can access social media
even using a mobile phone) and unbiased
platforms for sharing feedback. Little
wonder then that many healthcare
providers in the world are on social media
such as Twitter, Facebook,YouTube and
blogs.
3 Impact of Social Media in Healthcare www.wipro.com
Why is social media important in Healthcare?
Discussions around personal health, and by A recently concluded consumer survey in the US says
extension healthcare, are no longer private
issues. citizens today are taking keen interest 60 Million Americans exchanged their medical experiences online with each
in their health and prefer sharing health other last year.
related information with their peers. With Almost 72 % of patients searched for online information before or after a
governments across the world re-looking at doctor visit.
their healthcare systems and taking
measures in a bid to extend healthcare 890 hospitals in the US used social media to engage with their patients
benefits to as many citizens as possible, (Source: http://ebennett.org/hsnl/ )
public health and associated policy remains
a key topic of discussion. At the same time, Other key healthcare trends for 2010 include:
the internet has emerged as the main 73% of US consumers consider being physically fit important to being 'well',
medium to enable such information sharing, with 74% including 'feeling good about themselves'.
with social media taking the lead. (Source:The Hartman Group,August 2010)
An estimated 500 million people worldwide are expected to be using mobile
healthcare applications by 2015.
(Source: Reasearch2Guidance, November 2010)
There were nearly 17,000 health apps available in major app stores in
November 2010, with 57% of them being aimed at consumers rather than
healthcare professionals.
(Source: Reasearch2Guidance, November 2010)
The heaviest use of health or medical related apps is by young adults: about
15% of those aged 18 to 29 have such apps, compared to 8% of users aged 30
to 49.
(Source:The Pew Internet Project, October 2010)
4 Impact of Social Media in Healthcare www.wipro.com
Another study highlights the efforts taken by hospitals to use social media to their benefit. The graph below illustrates the same.
% of All U.S. Hospitals
% of Hospitals doing Social Media
50%
40%
Percentage of hospitals
30%
20%
10%
<100 100-200 200-500 500+
Hospital Bed Count Source: ebennett.org
It clearly shows that larger hospitals are early adopters of Social Media. Hospitals with a bigger patient base have clearly more
scope to engage in more user generated content. Also most big hospitals such as Mayo Clinic, who for the last 100 Years have
relied on word of mouth to propagate their services, are rapidly adopting social media and have dedicated personnel who are
engaging patients like never before.
The same source also indicates that there are a total of 2,337 hospital social networking sites in the United States today. State
wise, New York is the clear leader with almost 253 sites across various hospitals. California is second at 144. Channel wise, both
Facebook and Twitter are equally popular, with You Tube and Linkedin coming in second. Blogs are a distant third.
Blog
Linkedin
5%
18%
You Tube
19%
Twitter
28%
Facebook
30%
5 Impact of Social Media in Healthcare www.wipro.com
Prevalent models of social media engagements in the healthcare industry
In healthcare Social Media has been used consistently for recruitment, Sharing Ratings, Introducing new products & Services
and Awareness Creation. Let us look at these models with some current examples.
Recruitment – Since the industry requires specialized skills, over its competitors in the HCAHPA ratings and is in the
organizations have moved beyond placing advertisements in 'Definitely would recommend' category.
conventional media to more targeted social media channels
such as focused websites (those of medical schools), blogs Introducing new services and Patient education – Many
(written by industry professionals, students) and various hospitals use blogs to introduce new services and to educate
professional networking sites such as LinkedIn (dedicated patients, particularly with increasing focus on preventive care as a
pages, profiles, job postings, announcements). Also, since method to reduce costs. The Holy Cross Hospital, part of the
most of the target audience for recruitment is mainly under Catholic Health East group, has blogs dedicated to each
30 years of age and social media savvy, organizations prefer therapeutic group. Most of the blogs have information on new
reaching out to them on platforms they are most accessible therapeutic methods, preventive health and other general health
– social media. For example the HC A group information including recent awareness campaigns. Each blog
(http://www.acareerathca.com/) actively uses twitter group has its own set of patient testimonials and comments on
(@acareerathca) to advertise for open positions in the the benefits that the patient received from the hospital.
hospital. These positions are mostly niche clinical positions ( S o u r c e h t t p : / / w w w . h o l y -
and the requisite skills here are not easily available in the cross.com/main2.php?main_id=10&sub_id=175).
market.
Awareness Creation – In a bid to enter new markets, particularly
Facilitating customer ratings – Hospitals are increasing using developing countries, companies traditionally relied on qualified
blogs as tool for customer rating and feedback. Some third party research to understand local culture and its impact on
organizations also allow users to blog about their business potential.Today, a large portion of that research is being
experiences on the company blog or link the blogger's replaced by user discussions on dedicated websites. A good
personal blog to their company website. Prospective example is Johnson & Johnson's BabyCenter chain of websites
customers always see more value in peer reviews as that focuses on expecting mothers' and children's health. It not
compared to company generated content such as only provides valuable information on pregnancy related issues,
advertisements/ brochures. but also allows users to blog or share their views via discussion
boards. Discussion topics include rating/ endorsing gynecologists,
Todd Linden, the CEO of Grinnell Regional Medical Center in tests during pregnancy, baby products, feedback on hospitals and
Iowa, used his blog to publish the Patient Satisfaction Ratings. facilities, traditional birthing/ post birth practices versus modern
Though the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare practices and exercise routines during and post pregnancy.
Providers and Systems (HCAHPS), published jointly by (Source: http://www.babycenter.com/)
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) and the Agency for
Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), are published The site first started as a pilot in the UK in 1997 and has today
online, it was interesting to note that Mr Linden used blog to spread to 22 markets worldwide. It currently has over 100 million
publicize the result rather than using traditional media members including 20 million new visitors every month and it
engagement models like a press release. available in 12 languages. BabyCenter is on Twitter and Facebook
(Source: http://toddlinden.blogspot.com/2009/02/numbers- too.
are-in-and-winners-are-patients.html)
Another example is when some researchers at The
Incidentally most hospitals with high integration of social Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass Gen) came up with an
media in their marketing & communication plan have done iPhone application for locating the closest emergency room
better than their peers in the HCAHPS. A good example is anywhere in the US. Mass Gen, with a very mature social media
Sarasota Memorial in Florida which is active on Twitter policy, created a YouTube video about the app and pitched it to
(http://www.smh.com @SMHCS) with 1,230 followers as bloggers to use the application. They also tweeted the app and
well as on Facebook posted it on their face book page.This led to the app getting listed
(http://www.facebook.com/SarasotaMemorialHospital?ref= on media sites like Boston.com and Wired.com's Geek Dad Blog.
mf).This is a good example of how a Healthcare provider that The YouTube video had 1146 views and the other social media
has incorporated a two way communication channel with its sites helped take it to many thousands. Had traditional media
patients, physicians and community is seen as a symbol of an been used for publicizing the application, such results would not
evolved organizational culture. Sarasota has a 6 % advantage have been achieved in the short time frames.
(Source: http://lisaneal.wordpress.com/2010/12/03/mgh/)
6 Impact of Social Media in Healthcare www.wipro.com
Key concerns in using social media in Healthcare
A key concern with using social media in business has been the Social Media, Mayo Clinic, HIPAA does not prevent individual
reliability of information. In heavily standardized and regulatory patients from presenting their own story on social media.
driven industries such as Healthcare, it becomes imperative to However, when they talk about a family member, then the
have well recognized/ accredited sources of information. For social media risk management team (of Mayo Clinic) de-
instance, a department of HHS approval could become far identifies the patient with either an alias or just the first name to
more valuable than 100 user reviews on a product. protect patient identity on the social media site. If the hospital
has to upload a patient video they get a consent form just like
Due to increased privacy laws and regulation, healthcare one would do in a TV interview.This way the hospital is able to
centric discussions need greater moderation than any other sustain itself in keeping with the boundaries set by HIPAA.
industry. This also extends to social media in terms of defining (Source:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O60KBugBtFM&f
clear criteria/ guidelines for how much of content to share and eature=related)
in what form. According to Lee Aase, Manager Syndication and
7 Impact of Social Media in Healthcare www.wipro.com
The future implications of social media on Healthcare
While it is important to get feedback from customers, organizations must know how to incorporate this feedback in a meaningful
way in their business and brand strategies. In keeping with that, one can be expected to see the impact of social media in the
following areas:
Brand monitoring and management Faster industry cycles
Social Media in healthcare could become the number one In the last few decades, we have seen how the coming of age of
source of brand monitoring. Currently not too many computers helped reduce industry cycles and helped products
Healthcare firms are doing that. But organizations outside the go to market faster. The internet revolution resurrected the
healthcare industry, such as Dell, have built their reputation services business. In a similar way social media is today
by monitoring their brand on social media. The company, influencing industry cycles by:
which has been on social media since 2006, mines data from Helping bring out products faster – by enabling co-creation and
all social networking sites and keeps track of what customers collaboration
are talking about when it comes to their brand. Complaints
are responded to, new product ideas are encouraged and Customizing products to suit individuals – by providing data on
orders are booked through Twitter (In 2009 the company individual preferences
generated business of $3 million through Twitter.) The
company has also created a platform to syndicate content The healthcare industry could benefit from both these aspects.
and aggregate content so as to monitor the brand. In the area of health plans, the general move is towards offering
customized plans to suit individuals and not offer them group
In the healthcare industry, the need for brand monitoring is plans.To do so, companies typically invest in third party research
not only to respond to a problem or complaint but also to to obtain certain demographics and psychographic trends,
measure marketing effectiveness and create new channels which are then applied to tweak their existing plain vanilla
for visibility and eventually sales. For instance, with the insurance offerings.These tweaked plans are then tested in the
coming up of the health insurance exchanges, individuals can market with focus groups to ascertain the potential for success.
buy health insurance on their own, without depending on The entire process typically can take about 6- 12 months.
their employers. This will open up a big channel for health
plans across the US to effectively leverage social media and This time frame can be reduced by half if companies start
reach out to prospective customers with real time updates monitoring social media and engage in relevant conversations
on aspects such as plans with the lowest premium for the with consumers and prospects, seek opinions and incorporate
day/ month/ quarter or lowest co-pays. Further they could these into customized plans. Using a content syndication and
also have special schemes for the holiday season or discounts aggregation tool, not only would they be able to reduce
on specific schemes, thus turning the social media channel dependence on research firms, but also get closer to the
into a revenue generating channel. consumer and launch more feasible products.
In the medical devices industry, a lot of devices prescribed to
Hospitals on the other hand should be able to offer services patients for home use are not very user friendly. At some stage if
like online consultation, availability of appointments/ doctors, patients are involved in a greater way in the manufacturing and
special discounts on the pharmacy products and booking design aspects of these devices, then the acceptance for these
operation theatres for minor procedures via social media like devices would be much higher.
twitter. Blogs can be used for fostering research and
collaboration across hospitals.
Conclusion
Social media is pervading businesses like never before. Employees use it and so do customers and prospects. It is shaping
public opinion and eventually government policy. Healthcare organizations need to understand how the chatter in the social
media universe can be harnessed meaningfully to grow business and visibility. While some organizations have taken the lead
in this area, many others are struggling to understand this new medium of opportunity. Developing a social media policy is
no longer an option today, it is a necessity. If healthcare organizations do not take efforts in this direction, they run the risk
of becoming stagnant and perhaps obsolete in the long run.
8 Impact of Social Media in Healthcare www.wipro.com
About the author
Dr. VikramArgentina, Brazil,Manager
(Doc) is the Marketing Chile,forColombia
the Healthcare and Mexico
and services are
business unit of Wipro Technologies, a leading
global Information Technology services provider. Doc is responsible for Wipro's brand development in the Healthcare IT
among the most popular Latin American locations for
market gobally. He has 9 years of experience in the Healthcare Industry spanning healthcare providers, health plans and life
establishing
sciences. His operations.
strategic interests include tracking e-health initiatives, healthcare public policy, regulatory frameworks, healthcare
quality analytics and business intelligence.
Prior to Wipro, he has worked with CSC in Sales and Marketing with specific focus on providing technology solutions to aid
clinical trials, research and development, and sales and marketing functions of life sciences firms.
Doc holds Masters Degrees in Business Administration from IMT Ghaziabad, a premier B-School in India, and Clinical Research
from the Institute of Computational Biology, Bangalore, India. He also holds a Bachelors Degree in Dental Surgery from
Manipal University, one of Asia's best dental institutes.
About Wipro Healthcare
Wipro Healthcare, ranked #15 in Healthcare Informatics Top 100 technology vendors, has over 4000 dedicated techno-
functional associates. Wipro caters to Healthcare payer, Healthcare provider, Healthcare Distribution and Healthcare Services
market segments.. Besides its strong IT proposition, Wipro has strong verticalised offerings for the Healthcare segment Wipro
helps its clients in achieving better quality of care, patient safety, through technology enabled innovation.
For more information please visit www.wipro.com/industries/healthcare.
Follow us on Twitter @wiprohealthcare
References
1) http://ebennett.org/hsnl/
2) The Hartman Group, August 2010
3) Reasearch2Guidance, November 2010
4) The Pew Internet Project, October 2010
5) http://www.acareerathca.com/
6) http://toddlinden.blogspot.com/2009/02/numbers-are-in-and-winners-are-patients.html
7) http://www.smh.com
8) http://www.facebook.com/SarasotaMemorialHospital?ref=mf
9) http://www.holy-cross.com/main2.php?main_id=10&sub_id=175
10) http://www.babycenter.com/
11) http://lisaneal.wordpress.com/2010/12/03/mgh/
12) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O60KBugBtFM&feature=related
9 Impact of Social Media in Healthcare www.wipro.com
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