Hippos and Hashtags: Social Media in Health Care

1. Hippos and Hashtags:Social Media in Health Care Dana Lewis | @danamlewis Interactive Marketing Specialist @Swedish

2. Swedish is a non-profit health system serving the greater Seattle, Washington, USA area. 5 hospitals. 15 primary care clinics. 2 separate emergency departments

3. My background: 2002: diagnosed with diabetes2008: diagnosed with celiac disease2009: created #hcsm2010: joined Swedish2011: still using social media every day as a patient.

4. Why does all of this matter? In the United States, 80% of people look for health information online “Social media breaks down the barriers & brings people to the table to have the right conversations in health care.”- @danamlewis

5. Who uses social media in health care? • Patients • 80+% of Americans search online for health info • Physicians • 86% search online for health information in their practice • Organizations • 908 Hospitals => 3,087 Hospital Social Networking/Media Sites • 448 YouTube Channels • 719 Facebook pages • 674 Twitter Accounts • 431 LinkedIn Accounts • 106 Blogs (but not just hospitals)

6. Different types of organizations: • Hospitals/health systems • Non-profit patient associations • Pharmaceutical companies • Medical device companies • Insurance companies (“payers”) • Etc • Etc.

7. Why do people use HCSM? (Health Care for Social Media) • Patients • Learn about symptoms, diseases/conditions, options • Educate themselves, understand treatments • Support • Physicians • Ongoing education • Resources for treating patients (medical research) • Peer-to-peer support • Marketing/promotion • Organizations • Connect to patients/consumers/customers & provide resources • Public health information • Virtual “help” desk and patient/customer relations

8. Patients: find/learn about clinical trials

9. Patients: find support, health info

10. What are the legal, regulatory, and ethical implications for social media?

11. The elephant in the room – or rather, the Hippo

12. HIPAA(Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) • Title 1 • regulates the availability and breadth of group health plans and certain individual health insurance policies • Title 2 • defines offenses relating to health care and sets civil and criminal penalties for them • creates several programs to control fraud and abuse within the health care system • sets administrative 'simplification' rules 12

13. Wait - what did HIPAA say about social media? (nothing)

14. Physicians need to start talking to patients.Patients need to think about what they are putting online.Let’s start talking.

15. Examples from the real world

16. How is Swedish using social media?

17. We do social media with… • Patients • Family/communities • CEO • Senior leadership • Physicians • Nurses • Other Swedish employees • Community partners

18. “We don’t do anything different; we just do it differently”

19. Swedish Turns 100 – Flash Mob 245,000+ views

21. Leveraging existing tools to create community online + = • Created: July 2010 • Status: Completed • ~10,000 people engaged • ~5.5+ million impressions • Why it worked: • Reached people when needed – at night • Resources

22. One size does not fit all • Curator of health information, local resources • Swedish news, general patient information, local news & resources • Physician bios, FAQs, hot topics Different communities, different messaging

23. www.swedish.org/blog Physicians, nurses, patients – all in one place

24. Physicians can blog on their profile

25. Physicians, nurses, educators, etc:

26. Baby steps: • Social media isn’t right for everyone • Doctors do better with small steps to get started • Don’t reinvent the wheel • …so stop talking, start doing it.

27. Questions? Engage with us online:http://swedish.org/bloghttp://swedish.org/engage • Dana Lewis | @danamlewis | dana.lewis@swedish.org