---
title: "How do we know that social media is important to health care?"
description: "I began a recent speech at a medical school with a question that many busy clinicians might be asking: How do we know that social media is important to health care?"
date: "2013-10-21"
authors:
  - name: "Susannah Fox"
    job_title: "Former Researcher"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/susannah-fox/"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2013/10/21/how-do-we-know-that-social-media-is-important-to-health-care/"
categories:
  - "Health Care"
  - "Health Policy"
  - "Healthcare Online"
  - "Medicine & Health"
  - "Online Search"
  - "Social Media"
---

# How do we know that social media is important to health care?

On Friday, I spoke at the [Albert Einstein College of Medicine](http://www.einstein.yu.edu/), along with [Kevin Pho, MD](http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/). During a planning call, the symposium organizers had shared results from a faculty survey: Fully two-thirds do not use social tools on a regular basis. Asking them, therefore, to spend a [half-day](http://www.einstein.yu.edu/education/md-program/faculty-development/event-details.aspx?eventid=294) learning about social media was a pretty bold request.

Inspired by [Kathy Sierra](http://seriouspony.com/blog/2013/10/4/presentation-skills-considered-harmful) to focus on the users' (that is, the audience's) needs, I began with a question that many busy clinicians might be asking:

**How do we know that social media is important to health care?**

Why should they take anyone's word for it? Where is the evidence?

My [slides ](https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/Presentations/2013/Oct/Health-Care-Social-Media.aspx)contain all the data I gathered, with a special focus on low-income, low-literacy, and immigrant populations since we were at a hospital serving the Bronx. If you download the file, you can see the resources and studies I link to in the notes section for each slide.

A few highlights:

1) The [Pew Research Center](https://www.pewresearch.org/), where I work, collects survey data to hold a mirror up to society and to provide a window into people's lives. I collect "vanguard data" in the form of stories, like [this one](http://66roses.blogspot.com/2013/06/creating-and-sustaining-collaborative.html), about two moms who connected on Facebook and prevented the overtreatment of a child.

2) Text messaging counts as a social tool. And there is [evidence ](http://mobihealthnews.com/26432/text2quit-hits-75000-users-32-percent-quit-rate/)that it [works](http://innovations.ahrq.gov/issue.aspx?id=102) as a health tool.

3) [Video ](https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/Reports/2013/Online-Video.aspx)is a viable option for health education, particularly among low-literacy populations.

4) Clinicians are still central to most people's health care decision-making. And most of the conversation and care happens offline. There is still plenty of time for clinicians to join in the social media revolution.

I put together a Storify of the tweets related to the two keynotes:

[Social media's use in medicine](http://storify.com/SusannahFox/social-media-s-use-in-medicine)

And finally:

I began the talk with a question and ended with an answer, of sorts, in the same form as [Michael Pollan](http://michaelpollan.com/books/in-defense-of-food/)'s 7-word wisdom about nutrition:

**Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.**

My version, for these clinicians facing down choices about social media engagement, was as follows:

**Listen in. Share your wisdom. Encourage others.**

My first draft ended with "Welcome change" but I decided it was better advice to encourage others to join them, which could be interpreted as other colleagues, their students, or even their patients. So I was delighted when Kevin included this Charles Darwin quote in his remarks:

**"It is not the strongest of a species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change."**

What do you think? Are you convinced? What other evidence do we need to collect? What would be your advice to clinicians -- or others -- who are just starting out in health care social media?

*Join the conversation on [susannahfox.com](http://susannahfox.com/2013/10/21/how-do-we-know-that-social-media-is-important-to-health-care/).*