How to build a business case for social media for your practice

In my previous post, “Is there a business case for healthcare in social media?”, we discussed the use of social media in  marketing pharmaceuticals.  We saw that the use of social media in pharmaceutical marketing  has regulatory constraints but also considerable opportunity in the area of education.

Social media like Twitter and Facebook can be used to create a vibrant sense of community between a physican and patients and that sense of community can be translated into a way of increasing demand for a practice or healthcare organization. This is also an outstanding use of social media for marketing.

But – that’s not what I want to talk about.

I want you to consider how private social networking for healthcare can help you improve the data you get from your patients, how it can save you time and how it can improve patient trust by using social networking for secure connectivity.

Let’s discuss private social networking and the benefits for you and for your patients:

Private social networking for healthcare has 4 business requirements:

1. A private and secure user friendly messaging system which enables the exchange of private messages between doctor and patient without the privacy exposure and time consuming distraction of email and Facebook.
2. Make it easy to distribute guidance directly and discreetly to the patient and care givers. Guidance may include information such as medications, treatments, tests, follow ups etc.
3. Make it easy for your patient and caregivers to update you with relevant data on a timeline such as: blood pressure, pulse, dizziness, general feeling, appetite, clarity of speech, movement stability as well as classified events such as falling, nausea, blood pressure drops/peaks, medication taken (what, how much, when, who gave) and treatments performed (what, when, who gave).
4. Make it easy to identify the differences between what you instructed and what the patient /caregivers actually did. Think of it like balancing your checkbook.

This is a profitable business model because it provides benefits on the supply side (you – the doctor) and on the demand side (your patients/caregivers).

Benefits for doctors

1. You save time collecting and guessing at data since you can use data received directly from patient in-between office visits. Better data means easier and faster decisions.
2. Better data helps achieve earlier and more consistent diagnosis and reduce the cost of taking the wrong path of treatment.
3. Easier and faster decisions means that tou can treat more patients without sacrificing quality of care and responsiveness.

Benefits for patients

1. Helps patient / caregivers better understand the patient’s condition and the therapeutic plan.
2. Improve execution of the plan and management of the patient’s disease or clinical issue.
3. Provides intangible advantage for the patient: Knowing that someone is listening and that treatment can be improved using the latest data on their condition which may save unnecessary visits to the office.

But above all – better data and understanding of the issues on both sides heightens patient trust and confidence which contributes in itself to the quality of the doctor-patient workflow.

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