All new tools deserve brainstorming and discussion to fully explore their potential.

As a patient, I would be willing to sign off on having my physician’s office contact me via Twitter to let me know that the doctor was running late. Would it work for all patients and all physician offices? Probably not. Could it work for some and make the physician office more efficient and the patient more satisfied? Most definitely!

Mary Pat

The authors intention is admirable, but the realities of privacy legislation with respect to healthcare info makes many applications non-starters.

For example, you cannot even send a reminder of an appointment, since the physician might specialize in HIV or mental health, and since Twitter is not private/encrypted end to end, it might inadvertantly reveal that a patient is seeing a doctor for a “sensitive” condition.

Not gonna fly.

Pity…but such is life.

Thanks for your comment. I think getting medical providers to use social media and other new technology is a great thing to do while everyone is debating over the big stuff! Everyone gets nervous when I talk about using technology to be more interactive with patients and be more efficient in healthcare, but I’m not talking about the big bucks that EMR and other software costs. I recently set up a payment portal for my practice to be able to arrange payment plans on patient credit cards. Both parties win when everyone knows the cost of medical services up front and can make arrangements to suit both, and everyone wins when no financial information is kept in the practice or on the practice server. This technology costs less than $4K and has already paid for itself many times over in the first month! This is just one example.

I think we already follow each other on Twitter – I am @mpwhaley.

Cheers!

Mary Pat

Great post. I think Twitter is just one of the many ways health care can embrace social media. Although I suspect many of the arguments for it are too far fetch. Or maybe ahead of its time.

There is much inefficiency in healthcare – and although I agree we can overcome many of those inefficiencies with social media – many more pressing matters need to be resolved first. But as I’ve said before, don’t let our pursuit of perfection hinder our ability to try new things.

What is your user name on Twitter so we can follow you?

Brandon
Practice Manager
@pediatricinc