Health IT, Patient Engagement

Health IT tweet chat examines patient experience

There's been plenty of talk about patient-centeredness in healthcare, but the experience too often remains provider-centric. For an hour on Friday at least, the focus of the weekly health IT social media tweet chat (#HITsm) was squarely on the patient.

By Neil Versel on August 21, 2015

 

There’s been plenty of talk about patient-centeredness in healthcare, but the experience too often remains provider-centric. For an hour on Friday at least, the focus of the weekly health IT social media tweet chat (#HITsm) was squarely on the patient.

Participants covered five topics in an hour:

https://twitter.com/2healthguru/status/634756237821878273

We will focus on the first two from this chat, which was moderated by Melody Wilding, manager of social innovation at ConsumerMedical, a Pembroke, Mass.-based company that helps patients and caregivers navigate the convoluted U.S. healthcare system.

Initial discussion focused on crowdsourcing patient experience through social media.

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Nice reference to the “Save the Hipsters” video from Rocky Mountain Health Plans in Colorado, one we had a lot of fun with last month.

Twitter obviously is global, and this chat included at least one participant from Australia, informatics specialist Dr. George Margelis.

His statement wasn’t universally well-received, though.

https://twitter.com/2healthguru/status/634759996266422272

Others saw the potential of social media as a source of information on the patient experience.

https://twitter.com/caretothepeople/status/634759581818822656

Moving on to the second topic, patients are generating lots of data, through wearable devices, mobile apps and social media, among other sources. But are healthcare organizations integrating this information into patient care?

Erin Wold, a marketing manager for Lexmark International subsidiary Perceptive Software, had an easy answer:

https://twitter.com/ErinEWold/status/634760995035049985

https://twitter.com/ErinEWold/status/634762482234601472

Wold did find some agreement.

She also saw some pushback, in the form of a tough question from a journalist.

https://twitter.com/ErinEWold/status/634761913512144896

Dr. Charles Webster, a consultant in Washington, D.C., is all about physician and patient workflow. Changes to workflow would allow the integration of patient-generated data, he said.

Come to think about it, several other participants discussed workflow, whether they realized it or not.

Perhaps clinicians and healthcare organizations tune out patient social media because people tend to be negative?

Some also questioned Webster.

But it apparently can be useful for people with rare diseases, particularly in cases where so little is known about their conditions.

https://twitter.com/caretothepeople/status/634762587197063169

The same goes for mental health.

https://twitter.com/onlyoneschlyer/status/634764201999908864

At one point, the conversation veered off into the realm of online dating.

https://twitter.com/2healthguru/status/634767269474762753

But Dr. Eric Topol doesn’t want to talk about “Gattaca” in healthcare. He told us so last week. Such is the nature of Twitter. Anything goes.

Photo: Bigstock