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THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON PUBLIC HEALTH RESEARCH AND PRACTICE a conversation with Gonzalo Bacigalupe.
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THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON PUBLIC HEALTH RESEARCH AND PRACTICEa conversation with Gonzalo Bacigalupe Technology developments are moving us towards the predominance of cloud computing, collaborative exchange, and social networking over the use of technology as just storage, multitasking, and faster ways of carrying on business as usual. These developments stimulate new ways of collecting data, developing messages, and sharing information. Notions of expertise, control, hierarchy, acquisition of knowledge, locality, identity, privacy, etc. are all in flux as social media is adopted by populations worldwide. We explore some of these technologies and how they may reshape public health practice. gonzalo.bacigalupe@umb.edu
Personal Health Technology: Future? http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?vid=083e1117-9f61-40e1-aea4-b31e7baa8f13
The effect of Web 2.0 on medical practice and education: Web 2.0 is a term describing new collaborative Internet applications. The primary difference from the original World Wide Web is greater user participation in developing and managing content, which changes the nature and value of the information. Key elements of Web 2.0 include: Really Simple Syndication (RSS) to rapidly disseminate awareness of new information; blogs to describe new trends; wikis to share knowledge; and podcasts to make information available "on the move". Increasing role in providing health information "any time, any place". McLean, R., Richards, B. H., & Wardman, J. I. (2007). The effect of Web 2.0 on the future of medical practice and education: Darwikinian evolution or folksonomic revolution? Medical Journal of Australia, 187(3), 174-177.
Web 2.0 Social software in health and health care education Web 2.0 sociable technologies and social software: enablers in health and health care, for organizations, clinicians, patients and laypersons. They include social networking services, collaborative filtering, social bookmarking, folksonomies, social search engines, file sharing and tagging, mashups, instant messaging, and online multi-player games. The more popular Web 2.0 applications in education, namely wikis, blogs and podcasts, are but the tip of the social software iceberg. Web 2.0 technologies represent a quite revolutionary way of managing and repurposing/remixing online information and knowledge repositories, including clinical and research information, in comparison with the traditional Web 1.0 model. (…) tools presented in this review look very promising and potentially fit for purpose in many health care applications and scenarios, careful thinking, testing and evaluation research are still needed in order to establish 'best practice models' for leveraging these emerging technologies to boost our teaching and learning productivity, foster stronger 'communities of practice', and support continuing medical education/professional development and patient education. Kamel Boulos, M. N., & Wheeler, S. (2007). The emerging Web 2.0 social software: an enabling suite of sociable technologies in health and health care education. Health Info Libr J, 24(1), 2-23.
E-learning way of e-learning A wide range of social software has become readily available to young people. There is increasing interest in possibilities of using social software for undergraduate medical education. To identify the nature and extent of the use of social software by first year medical students. Structured self-administered questionnaire survey. Over 90 percent used instant messaging and social networking sites were highly used (70 percent). No significant difference between males and females. Blogs were read by about a fifth of students and a small number (8%) wrote their own blogs. A fifth of males stated that they were users of media sharing and contributed to wikis. Social bookmarking was rarely used by either sex. Medical educators need to recognize the potential of social software in undergraduate medical education but it is essential that students maintain the informality and privacy of these sites. The challenge for all medical educators is how to integrate social software into current curricula and institutional Virtual Learning Environments. Sandars, J., Homer, M., Pell, G., & Croker, T. (2008). Web 2.0 and social software: the medical student way of e-learning. Medical Teacher, 1-5.
Federal Government Social Media Federal health agencies relied heavily on social media to inform the public about the recent outbreak of salmonella tainted peanut butter, possibly reducing the number of death and injuries caused by the illness, according to federal health officials. "The response has been really amazing," said Janice Nall, director of the division of eHealth marketing at CDC, on the public's reaction to her agency's social media campaign. "We look at social media as additional channels to reach people where they are.” GAUTHAM NAGESH 02/09/2009 http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090209_7840.php
Social marketing / Social Media Users control communication in second generation of Internet-based applications, holding promise to significantly enhance promotional efforts within social marketing campaigns: • directly engaging consumers in the creative process by both producing and distributing information through collaborative writing, content sharing, social networking, social bookmarking, and syndication. • enhancing the power of viral marketing by increasing the speed at which consumers share experiences and opinions with progressively larger audiences. Because of the novelty and potential effectiveness of Web 2.0, social marketers may be enticed to prematurely incorporate related applications into promotional plans. But as strategic issues such as priority audience preferences, selection of appropriate applications, tracking and evaluation, and related costs are carefully considered, Web 2.0 will expand to allow health promotion practitioners more direct access to consumers with less dependency on traditional communication channels. Thackeray, R., Neiger, B. L., Hanson, C. L., & McKenzie, J. F. (2008). Enhancing promotional strategies within social marketing programs: use of Web 2.0 social media. Health Promot Pract, 9(4), 338-343.
Knowledge intermediation: source credibility not enough As a result of the social process of disintermediation enabled by digital media, traditional intermediaries are replaced by apomediaries: tools and peers standing by to guide consumers to trustworthy information, or adding credibility to information. For apomediation to be an attractive and successful model for consumers, the recipient has to reach a certain degree of maturity and autonomy. Different degrees of autonomy may explain differences in information seeking and credibility appraisal behaviors. In this environment, tools, influential peers and opinion leaders are the primary conveyors of trust and credibility. Apomediary credibility may become equally or more important than source credibility or even message credibility. Network analysis could be useful to study the dynamics of apomediary credibility in a networked digital world. There are practical implications of the apomediation model for developers of consumer health websites which aspire to come across as "credible”: Consumers need and want to be able to be co-creators of content, not merely be an audience who is broadcasted to. Web2.0 technology enables such sites. Engaging and credible Web sites are about building community and communities are built upon personal and social needs. Eysenbach, G. (2007). From intermediation to disintermediation and apomediation: new models for consumers to access and assess the credibility of health information in the age of Web2.0. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 129(Pt 1), 162-166.
Social networking can shape services We report on a thread discussing the controversial decision to use hormone replacement therapy (HRT) following prophylactic oophorectomy (PO). Two main groups of women posted: (1) Women who were BRCA+, had completed PO, and were debating or adjusting their HRT options in terms of optimizing both quality and quantity of life. (2) Women who were BRCA+, were contemplating PO, but wanted to better understand the potential physical and psychological consequences of surgical menopause before deciding. Frustrated by physicians' lack of knowledge and contradictory media articles about the long-term consequences of HRT in BRCA+ women, they sought resources, emotional support and specific experiential knowledge from each other and generated a unique sense of community and a high level of trust. Kenen, R. H., Shapiro, P. J., Friedman, S., & Coyne, J. C. (2007). Peer-support in coping with medical uncertainty: discussion of oophorectomy and hormone replacement therapy on a web-based message board. Psycho-Oncology, 16(8), 763-771.
Web-based self-help intervention: RCTs Four weeks Web-based course: Among all participants, the intervention was effective in reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety as well as in enhancing quality of life. A higher percentage of patients in the intervention group experienced a significant improvement in symptoms. The course was less effective for work-related stress, but participants in the intervention group recovered more often from burnout than those in the control group. Statistical and clinical significant effects on symptoms of depression and anxiety. These effects were even more pronounced among participants with more severe baseline problems and for participants who fully completed the course. Effects on work-related stress and quality of life were less clear. Cigarette smoking is a major risk factor for many chronic and fatal illnesses. Stopping smoking directly reduces those risks. The primary outcome measure was prolonged abstinence from smoking. Secondary outcomes were point-prevalence abstinence, number of cigarettes smoked, and incidence of quit attempts reported at follow-up assessments. Effective web-based programs can potentially help large numbers of smokers to quit, thus having a major public health impact. Kramer, J. J., Willemsen, M. C., Conijn, B., van Emst, A. J., Brunsting, S., & Riper, H. (2009). Effectiveness of a web-based self-help smoking cessation intervention: protocol of a randomised controlled trial. BMC Public Health, 9, 32. van Straten, A., Cuijpers, P., & Smits, N. (2008). Effectiveness of a web-based self-help intervention for symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress: randomized controlled trial. J Med Internet Res, 10(1), e7.
Empowering health consumers Consumer health informatics has emerged as a strategy to inform and empower patients for self management of their health. The emergence of and explosion in use of user-generated online media (e.g., blogs) has created new opportunities to inform and educate people about healthy living. Under a prevention research project, we are developing a website that utilizes social content collaboration mediums in conjunction with open-source technologies to create a community-driven resource that provides users with tailored health information. Khan, S. A., McFarlane, D. J., Li, J., Ancker, J. S., Hutchinson, C., Cohall, A., et al. (2007). Healthy Harlem: empowering health consumers through social networking, tailoring and web 2.0 technologies. AMIA Annu Symp Proc, 1007.
Google Uses Searches may be able to detect regional outbreaks of the flu a week to 10 days before they are reported by the CDC
Mashup Technology: not just for play http://irevolution.wordpress.com/2008/09/03/mapme-applications-for-humanitarian-mapping
Disaster Management If we are to make good on the UNISDR’s call for a shift towards people-centered early warning, then flood early warning/response systems ought to empower local communities to get out of harm’s way and minimize loss of livelihood. This shift in discourse and operational mandate is an important one in my opinion. Centralized, state-centered, top-down, external responses to crises are apparently increasingly ineffective. http://irevolution.wordpress.com/2008/09/07/mumbai
Flood Warning, Mobile Phones and Dynamic Mapping in India (September 7, 2008) • Today, one in four Indians has a mobile phone. […] From the villager sitting atop his half-drowned hut calling for help in flood-hit Bihar, to the kabadiwallah who eagerly hands you his number, it’s mobile networking like never before.“ • […] the mobile phone’s ‘greatest impact [will] be on those people with professions that are time, location and information sensitive. […] fishermen wanting a weather update or the location of the best catch; hospitals contacting patients without a permanent address; SMSes on the Sensex.” • “It is true that network coverage and mobile penetration are still limited to certain areas. But, interestingly, as a study by the Center for Knowledge Societies (CKS) showed in Maharashtra, Up and Karnataka, many new mobile users belong to poorer areas with scarce infrastructure, high levels of illiteracy and low PC and internet penetration.” http://irevolution.wordpress.com/2008/09/07/mumbai
