Research argues that social media is vital for health organisations

Health Organisations should be doing more on social media according to new research from Plymouth University.

The research, conducted by Maged N. Kamel Boulos as part of a World Health Organisation report into global health literacy, suggests that health organisations do more to make health advice available online.

The research finds that the use of engaging social media could vastly improve the public’s health literacy by offering accurate and accessible advice.

It also argues that due to the nature of social media, sites can become a distributor of bad advice by either malicious or misguided user postings posing as informed or expert opinion.

By actively monitoring social media, health organisations could prevent harm by correcting false information and steering those in need towards proper care.

One early adopter of social media as a tool to help raise awareness of health issues is the Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust which uses social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to engage with the local online community.

They also have a channel on YouTube and have been involved with publicising the development of a smartphone app which can offer an initial assessment on an incidence of dementia.

Despite this, the research argues that more health organisations should make an effort to ‘tailor’ content to specific audiences. This includes suggestions for ‘interactive games and live seminars in virtual worlds and plain-English videos’.

Speaking to The Plymouth Daily earlier today, Maged N.Kamel Boulos said: “A large number of people struggle with understanding health information in its current form. A conservative estimate would be that one in every two people just can’t get to proper grips with it.

“Medical language in particular is full of jargon, words that are never used in normal conversations. When you consider that the average reading age of most publications in the UK is about 10-years-old we have real problems in communicating with people about their health.

“Beyond that there is a lot of both misinformation and disinformation being sent across new media which is causing a real set of problems.

“There are so many websites out there which offer these miracle cures for weight loss or cures to cancer. With these cancer cures, these websites, with confusing or deliberately misleading information, can stop people from receiving proper treatment. You can’t turn back the clock when these miracle cures turn out not to work.

“Because of situations like this, it is clear that any reputable company must have a proper social media strategy.

“By going to where people are, like Twitter and Facebook, you are being an aid in getting people more health literate.

“Especially by using viral techniques like videos, with music or dancing, where the content can be fun and entertaining but with a core message embedded in it, you can reach millions of people from just one post.

"There are a lot of organisations and sites which are already really successful with their social media. patinetslikeme.com for example is an excellent social site for finding support from people suffering from chronic diseases and should be publicised more by health authorities.

“The NHS choices service - as well as a lot of the individual trusts - is very good at using existing sites like Twitter and Facebook to talk to people about health information and offer clear advice.

“A problem is that a lot of people are too embarrassed to ask if they don’t understand health issues and organisations need to change that by being there to communicate with them.”

Maged N. Kamel Boulos is an associate professor in health informatics at Plymouth University.