I have often wondered about the provision of health care to patients who cannot communicate with doctors or access community resources as easily as most, for example patients with language barriers. This blog post considers some social media approaches used to target different cultural communities in Canada.

Pondering barriers to health

While most of us manage to shop or sightsee in a country where we don’t speak the language, it is daunting to think about trying to obtain medical care or advice in such a setting.  How do you know what you’re meant to eat, drink, or even think? How do you make lifestyle choices without being fully informed? Do you want to see a doctor when they might not understand your cultural sensitivities? Yet immigrants in many countries have been struggling with this situation for years.

Changing times

The advent of the internet has changed many things. While no tool currently exists to translate your doctor’s spoken advice into a language of your choice (something to aim for in the future?!), numerous internet-based tools are available to translate text and websites into a multitude of languages (GoogleTranslate, BabelFish…).

But language isn’t always the problem. Sometimes individuals need information tailored to their cultural needs.  Organizations are starting to use social media to provide culturally-specific health information to those who need it. For example, the National Aboriginal Health Organization uses twitter to provide news relevant to Aboriginal people in Canada. The organization tweets almost daily to their (nearly) 1400 followers – a great strategy to engage people who may traditionally have had no access to this kind of information. The Métis Centre provides an online community for youth to blog, share and learn about health and identity: “Exploring Métis identity…in a positive way will lead to better identifying and addressing the needs of Métis youth, resulting in improved health”.

The Icon Project (InterCultural Online Network) is a BC-based initiative that looks to reduce barriers further, by providing a culture-specific, online, local community where patients can learn about disease, share health stories, and obtain information on local resources, in their own language. Developed by Dr Kendall Ho, Director of eHealth Strategy at UBC, and colleagues, the project targets the Chinese and Punjabi communities, and is expanding into Aboriginal health. By providing this online community alongside physical public health events, the team hopes to engage patients and caregivers, and expand the knowledge and empowerment of entire communities that may previously have felt isolated. While research into the value of such networks is at an early stage, it seems that this method of community engagement is a fantastic step towards a more holistic, patient-centred approach to healthcare, particularly in previously underserved populations.

Are we ready?

It is exciting to see so many communities embracing social media in healthcare. For the next little while, however, I think it will be important for pioneers of health 2.0 to consider that internet-based solutions to engagement, while potentially of great benefit, must be accompanied by an understanding of the populations that don’t have regular access to the internet. This may of course change in the future, but for now, there are patients, and even communities, who may be isolated from social network-based strategies, just like others may have been isolated from ‘in-person’ resources in the past.