Show Time, Friday, May 8 at 1:00PM Central Daylight Time US
The ideas of free speech and physician patient privilege come into play in our next Social Media Throwdown. This is a classic and complex issue facing patients and physicians. On one side of the issue is a simple case of a patient expressing their opinion of an interaction with a physician, no different than sharing their experience at a restaurant. In this issue, however, the topic isn’t chicken cordon bleu, it’s cancer, or any other of the thousands of aliments patients write about.
The trend in healthcare, as in other consumer experience areas, is to get as much information shared as possible. An informed consumer is a knowledgeable consumer, so the premise goes. That might be a stretch. Information does not in and of itself lead to knowledge. There are many websites, Patients Like Me, Healthgrades, Healthcarescoop.com, even Angie’s List, that encourage patients to blog about their experiences.
Innocent enough, you might think, however, medical treatment is more complex than a night out on the town. It involves many more variables, risk, and information, so putting it in the same context as a typical consumer experience maybe misleading. With all the complexities and emotion of medical treatment, the last thing a physician should worry about is a blog post that can last online forever, right? Some physicians are looking to limit blogging about the patient/physician relationship. Right behind this issue of unfettered patient speech is physician ratings on websites, with the major question do physicians ratings really illustrate performance?
On the patient side, blogging about their personal situations has been both helpful to others and in many cases therapeutic for the patient. While the negative post is something physicians dread, the more common post is both positive and enlightening. It’s a means for clinics to get immediate feedback and respond accordingly. As more hospitals and clinics move to patient-centered care, patient engagement will become the norm. Blogging about personal experiences is also part of the growing number of community sites built around aliments and diseases. One of the most popular around the world is Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong Foundation.
More money is behind websites that promote transparency and performance. Social Media Throwdown will present both sides of the medical blogging debate with Dr. Jeffrey Segal,MD and CEO of Medical Justice and Amy Tenderich, author of the blog Diabetesmine on Friday, May 8 at 1:00pm Central Time US. Dr. Segal is a nationally recognized authority on medical malpractice lawsuits and social media based assaults on physician reputations. Ms. Tenderich has received numerous accolades for providing valuable information and building a community around a disease that affects more than 24 million Americans.
It will be a live audio program over Blog Talk Radio, we will take questions from the audience. Call in to (646) 716-4882 NUMBER or listen live at the Social Media Throwdown with Albert Maruggi on Blog Talk Radio
Other interviews Albert Maruggi has conducted social media impact on healthcare on the Marketing Edge Podcast
