It is hard to remember (or in the case of my generation and younger to imagine) how people did their jobs before the existence of the internet and email. The infographic below from SpinaBifidaInfo.com shows the recent uptake of technology in the US health care industry.
Digital device use in healthcare
Some of the stats are just mind boggling: for example, 40% of physicians use a digital device at the point of care, and a similar number use the internet during patient consultations. Now that mobile devices are so integral in daily lives, it’s hard to remember that this was not even possible around 10 to 15 years ago!
It is clear that device companies are starting to catch on to the possibilities in this industry – mobile apps are being used by everyone from medical students upwards. Only last month Apple introduced a section of their store dedicated to healthcare related apps. The only surprise is that it took them so long to realise the potential of this area.
It would have been great to see some info on the use of digitial devices by others. I would be interested to know the uptake of digital devices by other healthcare users: managers, nurses, and other allied healthcare professionals. In the latest season of Grey’s Anatomy, the new Chief of Surgery has replaced his traditional office with a digital device, letting him meet his administrative needs while being “on the ground” with patients and staff. I’m sure that if it’s happening in mainstream TV shows, that devices are being used similarly everywhere by healthcare leaders in real life. It seems like nurses are definitely in on the action, using apps such as Nursing Central, although this (perhaps outdated?) report from 2009, suggests that communication lapses have occurred due to unintegrated systems, and their could be improvements in patient care with improved digital device use.
What about social media…?
According to the graphic around two thirds of doctors are using social media for professional purposes, with around half influenced by user-generated content. This is excellent news for the development of social media in the healthcare industry. The opinions of physicians are often well respected in the health sphere, so if the doctors are onboard then it is likely that these figures are only going to rise as other users catch on.
One of the stats that amazed me most was the number of hospitals on Foursquare, the location-based application that allows users to check in so that their friends and families can see where they are. I don’t know much about Foursquare, having not signed up, and so was bemused – why would people want to check in to a hospital? I found this blog from another (previously) confused user, which helped elucidate some of the reasons why a hospital might be on Foursquare: for example, people can comment on the service provided, good or bad. This could help hospitals to identify customer service problems, before they would be identified normally, as well as identifying strengths of the hospital so that they can be replicated elsewhere in the system. What an amazing amount of information, for very little investment!
What next?
It seems that people are more creative than we could ever imagine with regards to the ways in which they use social media. Who knows where the future lies in this field? But wherever it is, one thing we can be sure of, it’s likely to be somewhere the majority of us can’t even picture right now!
