The latest poll conducted by Case Western University asked physicians and other medical professionals whether Twitter would become an essential tool for medical practices. Surprisingly 59% of respondents answered “Yes”. This differs from responses on a similar poll less then a year ago. In August of 2009, a poll of the medical community showed that 45% percent of respondents didn’t even use Twitter.
Of the 36% percent who did use Twitter, they reported using it as primarily a learning tool, for sharing information with other doctors and keeping abreast of medical news. Only 1.5% percent of the surveyed medical professionals said that they used Twitter as a way to connect with patients.
This new poll indicates a dramatic shift in how doctors view Twitter and by extension all other social media. While the vast majority of doctors still feel that they don’t have enough time to spend on social media, they are beginning to see Twitter as a valuable tool to reach patients and they believe it is a way to forge a more personal connection with patients.
Still, due to privacy concerns, most doctors believe that they will never give specific medical advice to patients via Twitter (or any other social media for that matter). However, it does present an opportunity to distribute information quickly.
Twitter is a way to broadcast health information to a wide audience and it gives doctors a way to direct patients to legitimate medical information resources. With Twitter, doctors can keep patients informed out ongoing medical news or public health emergencies such as the recent H1N1 outbreaks.
In addition, doctors see Twitter as a way to get instantaneous responses from others in the medical community. A physician can post a medical question for his colleagues and within seconds, the doctor can have a variety of responses.
