This article discusses the evolution of online communities for medical information sharing, their credibility and trends among healthcare practitioners.
For the first time, data from a recent survey showed that content from social media influences human practitioners’ perceptions and prescribing behavior. This trend in human medicine raises concerns, as well as exposes opportunities, all requiring caution and diligence.
The advisory board sees the rise in online clinician communities as a necessary change to improve clinical decision-making. Board members assert that whether it fulfills potential or compounds ongoing challenges with mis-information and dis-information depends on how leaders across the ecosystem answer four questions:
- How do we use these platforms to navigate the tension between our desire to facilitate evidence-based care, reduce unwarranted variation and the rapidly changing knowledge base?
- Can we leverage social listening and online clinician communities to help us identify unmet patient needs and evidence gaps that we can fill?
- What else can we do to reduce the noise clinicians face when trying to sift through medical research and emerging evidence?
- How should our answers to the questions above change when we’re talking about public or private online clinician communities?
Source: Advisory Board, February 28, 2023. Link.