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Social Diagnosis
For the Indian healthcare industry, social media is evolving
from being an additional marketing channel to a space for scheduling appointments
and gathering information, quite like a patient-doctor interaction center. By
Heena Jhingan
 Social
media has touched all domains, including the healthcare industry. If you are
diabetic and caught stuffing cake into your face on your social media account
in pictures taken at your friend's birthday party, chances are that your doctor’s
not going to like it as there is a high probability that your doctor is in your
list of friends on the social media network.
It is a healthy sign that a growing number of Indians have
begun trusting the Internet as a medium to get information on healthcare, and
social media is a small contributor to this trend. A dose of social media has
gone down well with the healthcare industry. Both doctors as individuals and
hospitals are making efforts to reach out to the patients through the virtual
world.
An international research report released early this year
by Max Bupa found that over a third of Indians go online for health-related
information. The findings of a separate digital healthcare survey on Indian
industry by Webchutney revealed that 72% of respondents were searching for health-related
information online and that eight out of ten of these individuals were looking
for information for themselves as well as for others.
According to the digital healthcare survey, about 70% respondents expressed
trust in the Internet as compared to friends, family or traditional advertising
channels. Almost 65% of the respondents used the Internet to seek out information
about a specific disease or medical condition while 47% expressed an interest
in using relevant mobile applications. The survey also showed that 67% of respondents
had expressed interest in location-based mobile healthcare services and, lastly,
an indicator that explains the entire revolution of healthcare information was
the finding that almost 96% of healthcare seekers , who participated in the
survey logged onto the Net at least once a day.
All said and done, social media is still in a nascent stage,
as far as Indian healthcare industry goes however it’s picking up fast.
The industry has come a long way over the last two years when most of the healthcare
providers were busy launching their Web sites. Today, a majority of top Indian
hospitals are present on the social networks.
 "When
we started, there were few followers but we had a plan to attract more along
with a target-based approach."
Dr. Srinidhi Chidambaram
Sr. Gen. Manager - International Patients Service & Health Communication,
Apollo Hospitals |
Having said that, mere presence does not do justice to the
medium. Dr. Srinidhi Chidambaram, Senior GM - International Patients Service
and Health Communication, Apollo Hospitals, observed that many players had still
not understood the impact of this medium. “When we started this initiative
of being active in social media, there were very few followers but we had a
sustained plan to attract more fans and followers and also a target-based approach.
Now we are growing fast. On Facebook or Twitter pages, you find members and
followers talking about illness and wellness and it shows the level of knowledge/information
sharing that is happening,” she said.
Although the social media frenzy is not unique to the healthcare industry, Ranjana
Smetacek, Director - Marketing & Corporate Communications, Fortis Healthcare,
observed that what was interesting to observe was the fact that it was evolving
from being a mere marketing tool to a means of participatory medicine and healthcare.
In many cases, the social media initiative started as a additional channel for
information sharing. This is graduating into a space for scheduling appointments
and gathering information, almost like a patient-doctor interaction center.
“Healthcare institutions have been trying to use corporate Web sites as
a front-end and a means to communicate with patients but that is usually a monologue.
However, a social media engagement is a dialogue between the healthcare service
provider and the patient. We believe that communications should not go into
black holes. Many players, including us, are working on integrating chat capacities
with corporate sites so that users can get information 24x7,” she said.
Acknowledging the fact that corporate sites were usually a means of one-way
communication, Manish S Nachnani, a Health IT consultant noted that corporate
Web sites posed no competition to public platforms. “The users are free
to express their opinion on these platforms, this gives credibility to the reviews
about the organization or the service. This is a simple way for healthcare service
providers to build trust and their brand.”
A social platform
Most healthcare players in India are using well-established platforms like Facebook,
Twitter and YouTube in the public domain for their social media identities.
However, a few healthcare players have created their own social media platforms
which are basically for intranet and internal purposes only. For instance, a
discussion on a recent case which will inform junior doctors. They also use
it to disseminate information regarding new initiatives among staff and for
conducting informal training.
“This is something that we are planning to implement as the discussion
within the different teams (in the same hospital or hospitals in different locations)
can occur and effective knowledge sharing amongst all staff members (front office,
sales, medics, paramedics, nursing, lab etc.) will happen,” commented Dr
Chidambram.
Shuvankar Pramanick, GM - IT, Asian Institute of Medical Sciences, informed
that the institute was using a Facebook page as a marketing medium and that,
in the future, it would prefer to go ahead with a home-grown platform.
However, many doctors remain uncomfortable with this form of interaction.
Dr Chidambram pointed, “The nature of the medium is such that, on these
platforms, different interpretations and all kinds of cross conversations will
happen and some doctors may not like the informal tone of the medium where people
can even comment on diseases, wherein the comments may be totally wrong or misinformed.
This cannot be looked at from a light-hearted view,when it comes to diseases
and their management.”
However, therein lies an immense opportunity in building ties with foreign patients.
“We also have a dedicated Facebook page for our international patients,
which provide them with information on the latest procedures, connects with
their country and various healthcare tips and contacts,” she added.
Social learning
 Although
initial efforts of leveraging the social media in healthcare are underway, following
some established trends in the US, we have a long way to go. Nachnani stressed,
“Sadly, India has not been able to identify the advantages that it has
as compared to developed nations. India, in fact, has more scope when it comes
to leveraging media as it is not governed by any HIPAA regulations as is the
case in the US. The Indian industry should exploit the advantage as, at present,
there are no privacy issues.”
He said that there were several examples that the industry
could learn from. The healthcare industry was making efforts to use Microsoft
Kinect sensors for uploading physiotherapy tips on YouTube, using virtual avatars.
The Internet is full of online communities that talk about healthcare in general
or specific ailments with patientslikeme.com being one such online community.
Indian industry needs to be proactive in replicating successful
models like linking insurance premiums to social media activities. “In
the US, some insurance companies offer premium benefits based on the applications
on social media that monitor an individuals physical activity patterns and analyze
their fitness. Presently, there are no such compelling offers in India,”
he said.
Going forward, concepts like wellness management and chronic disease management
are going to drive innovations in the industry. Keas.com, which is an interactive
service that enables the medical minds in healthcare to provide individuals
with ongoing advice and interpretation about their unique health data—such
as lab results and current conditions—and helps them take action to achieve
their health goals.
It is a small step in the long journey as social media engagement is still restricted
to urban India and is yet to trickle down to the bottom of the pyramid.
heena.jhingan@expressindia.com
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