Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Health Care Utilizes Facebook in New Ways

“Why Hospitals Shouldbe Facebook Friends with Benefits” is definitely an interesting article! It opens by discussing statistics on how hospitals are not connecting with others through Facebook. Well I have been discussing how the health care industry needs to engage more for months now so there is nothing new or surprising there. What is surprising are the examples of how certain health care systems are choosing to use Facebook.

My favorite use of a Facebook mentioned in the article is the Pinky Swear app that reminds women to schedule a mammogram and allows them to send reminders to others. The Henry Ford Health System is using this app to connect with patients, but also as prevention tool to educate women on risks associated with breast cancer. Love, love, love it! Even the name of the app is catchy and fun. I would love to see if this app actually influenced behavior and managed to get more women into the doctor’s office for a mammogram. Apps are very good at creating awareness and grabbing people’s attention, but just how effective are they are causing certain behaviors? Maybe additional research will tell us all soon enough! Either way, I am interested to see the numbers on just how successful this Facebook app is for the Henry Ford Health System because it is definitely a new and innovative way of using this social media tool to engage and connect.

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