Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

The impact of social networks on health care

  • Review Article
  • Published:
Social Network Analysis and Mining Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Our work examines the risks and benefits stemming from the evolution of Social Network Services (SNSs) in the healthcare domain. More specifically, we study the impact of specific health-oriented social networks such as PatientsLikeMe. Social networks evolved to a ubiquitous part of daily life and WEB 2.0 paved the way for the internet to be used as a method of interactive communication and information immersion. Health SNSs have the strength to influence healthcare services delivery and information availability supported by emerging technologies which track, gather and quantify real-time medical data from patients. SNSs support publicly provided information to patients, offering them the power not only to educate themselves but take part in the decision-making process of their health. On the other hand, healthcare stakeholders have gained access to new information which can help to cut costs, progress research, and improve the healthcare system. However, apart from the unambiguous benefits of SNSs, several risks are identified such as patient confidentiality violation. By incorporating the volumes of data collected by websites like PatientsLikeMe and other WEB 2.0 applications, the patient–industry partnership could ensure better products at lesser costs. Web 3.0 is the next step toward a heath care eco-system which will evolve out of micro-contributions creating the most accurate representations of medicine for the stakeholders.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Adams S (2007) Using blogging tools to help individuals record their experiences: an exploration and review of two commercial web applications in the Netherlands. In: Information technology in health care 2007, Proceedings of the 3rd international conference on information technology in health care, Socio-Technical Approaches, p 193

  • Aldhous P (2008) The Myspace mindset meets medical science. New Sci 198:26–27. doi:10.1016/S0262-4079(08)61225-7

    Google Scholar 

  • Archambault PM, van de Belt TH, Grajales Iii FJ, Eysenbach G, Aubin K, Gold I, Gagnon M-P, Kuziemsky CE, Turgeon AF, Poitras J, Faber MJ, Kremer JAM, Heldoorn M, Bilodeau A, Légaré F (2012) Wikis and collaborative writing applications in health care: a scoping review protocol. JMIR Res Protoc 1:e1. doi:10.2196/resprot.1993

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Azpeitia D, Ochoa-Zezzatti A, Cavazos J (2017) Viral analysis on virtual communities: a comparative of tweet measurement systems. In: Melin P, Castillo O, Kacprzyk J (eds) Nature-inspired design of hybrid intelligent systems. Springer, Berlin, pp 801–808. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-47054-2_54

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Baerlocher MO, Detsky AS (2008) Online medical blogging: don’t do it! Can Med Assoc J 179:292. doi:10.1503/cmaj.080757

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ballas MMS (2001) The impact of the internet on the healthcare industry: a close look at the doctor–patient relationship, the electronic medical record, and the medical billing process. Einstein Q J Biol Med 18:79–83

    Google Scholar 

  • Boulos KMN, Wheeler S (2007) The emerging Web 2.0 social software: an enabling suite of sociable technologies in health and health care education. Health Inf Libr J 24:2–23. doi:10.1111/j.1471-1842.2007.00701.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bradley M, Braverman J, Harrington M, Wicks P (2016) Patients’ motivations and interest in research: characteristics of volunteers for patient-led projects on PatientsLikeMe. Res Involv Engagem 2:33. doi:10.1186/s40900-016-0047-6

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brownstein CA, Brownstein JS, Williams DS, Wicks P, Heywood JA (2009) The power of social networking in medicine. Nat Biotechnol 27:888–890. doi:10.1038/nbt1009-888

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brubaker JR, Lustig C, Hayes GR (2010) PatientsLikeMe: empowerment and representation in a patient-centered social network. In: CSCW’10; Workshop on research in healthcare: past, present, and future

  • Cain J (2011) Social media in health care: the case for organizational policy and employee education. Am J Health Pharm 68:1036–1040

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chiauzzi E, DasMahapatra P, Cochin E, Bunce M, Khoury R, Dave P (2016) Factors in patient empowerment: a survey of an online patient research network. Patient Patient Cent Outcomes Res 9:511–523. doi:10.1007/s40271-016-0171-2

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Choi W, Stvilia B (2015) Web credibility assessment: conceptualization, operationalization, variability, and models. J Assoc Inf Sci Technol 66:2399–2414. doi:10.1002/asi.23543

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De la Loge C, Dimova S, Mueller K, Phillips G, Durgin TL, Wicks P, Borghs S (2016) PatientsLikeMe® online epilepsy community: patient characteristics and predictors of poor health-related quality of life. Epilepsy Behav 63:20–28. doi:10.1016/j.yebeh.2016.07.035

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eysenbach G (2008a) Medicine 2.0: social networking, collaboration, participation, apomediation, and openness. J Med Internet Res 10:e22. doi:10.2196/jmir.1030

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eysenbach G (2008b) Credibility of health information and digital media: new perspectives and implications for youth. In: Metzger MJ, Flanagin AJ (eds) Digital media, youth, and credibility. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Serieson Digital Media and Learning, The MIT Press, Cambridge, pp 123–154

    Google Scholar 

  • Fernandez-Luque L, Karlsen R, Bonander J (2011) Review of extracting information from the social web for health personalization. J Med Internet Res 13:e15. doi:10.2196/jmir.1432

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frost JH, Massagli MP, Wicks P, Heywood J (2008) How the social web supports patient experimentation with a new therapy: the demand for patient-controlled and patient-centered informatics. In: AMIA… Annual Symposium proceedings. AMIA Symposium. 2008, 217–21

  • Gallant LM, Irizarry C, Boone G, Kreps GL (2011) Promoting participatory medicine with social media: new media applications on hospital websites that enhance health education and e-patients’ voices. J Particip Med 3:e49

    Google Scholar 

  • Giustini D (2006) How Web 2.0 is changing medicine. BMJ 333:1283–1284

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hawn C (2009) Take two aspirin and tweet me in the morning: how twitter, facebook, and other social media are reshaping health care. Health Aff 28:361–368. doi:10.1377/hlthaff.28.2.361

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jain SH (2009) Practicing medicine in the age of facebook. N Engl J Med 361:649–651. doi:10.1056/NEJMp0901277

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keckley PH, Hoffmann M (2010) Social networks in health care: communication, collaboration and insights. Deloitte Cent. Heal. Solut., New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Lankes RD (2008) Trusting the internet: new approaches to credibility tools. In: Metzger MJ, Flanagin AJ (eds) Digital media, youth, and credibility. The John D. and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation Serieson Digital Media and Learning, The MIT Press, Cambridge, pp 101–121

    Google Scholar 

  • Li J (2015) A privacy preservation model for health-related social networking sites. J Med Internet Res 17:e168. doi:10.2196/jmir.3973

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lowe MM, Blaser DA, Cone L, Arcona S, Ko J, Sasane R, Wicks P (2016) Increasing patient involvement in drug development. Value Health 19:869–878. doi:10.1016/j.jval.2016.04.009

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCarrier KP, Bull S, Fleming S, Simacek K, Wicks P, Cella D, Pierson R (2016) Concept elicitation within patient-powered research networks: a feasibility study in chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Value Health 19:42–52. doi:10.1016/j.jval.2015.10.013

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murray E, Lo B, Pollack L, Donelan K, Catania J, White M, Zapert K, Turner R (2003) The impact of health information on the internet on the physician–patient relationship. Arch Intern Med 163:1727. doi:10.1001/archinte.163.14.1727

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Naujoks C, Olson M, Simsek D, de Reydet de Vulpillieres F, Vo P, Kendall K, Cerrato D (2016) How do migraines impact patient day-to-day life? an exploratory analysis of patient reported data from the patientslikeme community. Value Health 19:A438–A439. doi:10.1016/j.jval.2016.09.532

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ochoa A, González S, Moriel E, Arreola J, García F (2017) Improving decision-making in a business simulator using TOPSIS methodology for the establishment of reactive stratagems. In: Melin P, Castillo O, Kacprzyk J (eds) Nature-inspired design of hybrid intelligent systems. Springer, Berlin, pp 809–819. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-47054-2_55

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • PatientsLikeMe [WWW Document] (2017) URL www.patientslikeme.com

  • Schroeder EB, Desai J, Schmittdiel JA, Paolino AR, Schneider JL, Goodrich GK, Lawrence JM, Newton KM, Nichols GA, O’Connor PJ, Fitz-Randolph M, Steiner JF (2015) An innovative approach to informing research: gathering perspectives on diabetes care challenges from an online patient community. Interact J Med Res 4:e13. doi:10.2196/ijmr.3856

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Westerman D, Spence PR, Van Der Heide B (2014) Social media as information source: recency of updates and credibility of information. J Comput Commun 19:171–183. doi:10.1111/jcc4.12041

    Google Scholar 

  • Wicks P, Massagli M, Frost J, Brownstein C, Okun S, Vaughan T, Bradley R, Heywood J (2010) Sharing health data for better outcomes on PatientsLikeMe. J Med Internet Res 12:e19. doi:10.2196/jmir.1549

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wicks P, Sulham KA, Gnanasakthy A (2014) Quality of life in organ transplant recipients participating in an online transplant community. Patient Patient Cent Outcomes Res 7:73–84. doi:10.1007/s40271-013-0033-0

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Theodore Kotsilieris.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Kotsilieris, T., Pavlaki, A., Christopoulou, S. et al. The impact of social networks on health care. Soc. Netw. Anal. Min. 7, 18 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13278-017-0438-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13278-017-0438-1

Keywords

Navigation