3 Most Important Challenges To Be Considered While Using Social Media Data For Medical & Healthcare Research

In
Brief:

• Studies indicated that patients
  primarily used Twitter (59.9%), particularly for increasing knowledge and
  exchanging advice and Facebook (52.3%), particularly for social support and trading
  advice. Professionals mainly used LinkedIn (70.7%) and Twitter (51.2%), for
  communication with their colleagues and marketing details.

• As
  patients continue to turn to online means for health care information to
  monitor their decisions, it is becoming gradually significant for radiologists
  to involve with patients online via social media daises. There are several
  means that physicians can use social media to deliver patients with valued
  information and develop the complete patient experience. By elevating
  discoverability, curating radiology, involving with patient communities, and
  generating mineable social media content, radiologists can develop as thought
  leaders in this new form of patient-centered announcement and information
  discussion.

INTRODUCTION

Social media channels are being used by patients for switching
health information, involvements with their chronic condition, and pursue information
from other people or establishments, for example,

• NHS Choices ( www.nhs.uk)
• Joining the Conversation describes Big White
  Wall (www.bigwhitewall.com)
• Mental health SNS that facilitates peer-professional
  interactions
• National Institute for Health &  Care Excellence (NICE)
• UK government (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications)
• NHS England Publication stores (www.healthline.com)

Given that there is a high usage of social media for exchanging health information, it offers new opportunities between and amongst healthcare professionals, patients and public. Data Analysis on Healthcare service information ‘empowers’ patients and the general public to make responsible decisions.

Today, publicly available real-world social media blogs, microblogs

internet forums, content communities [such as YouTube, Flickr], social networking sites [such as Facebook and LinkedIn), data can now be analyzed with relative ease, bypassing many logical challenges associated with traditional approaches of Data Collection (e.g. electronic medical records, or conventional randomized clinical trials). Despite the high flow of data, researchers have struggled with three essential challenges:

1. Which is the most common disease category shared in public posts?

2.  What kind of information can be extracted from Social networking sites?

Social
media channels provide efficient, permeating and user-friendly daises that
can inspire involvement, engagement and achievement required from both those
who collect and deliver care to make health promotion interventions effective.

Participating health methods are
progressively drawing consideration among the scientific community and could be
used for health promotion programs through social media such as reviews, forum discussion,
blogs, micro blogs and social networks. The time restraints of today’s medical
practice pooled with the demand for chronic conditions make any additional
request of extra time used by Health Care Experts a challenge.

3.What are ethical guidelines to be adopted for extracting and analyzing health behaviour? 

According to the Fortune Report (March 18, 2019), the
parliamentary group called on the social media platforms to give researchers
all the Data
Analyst they need to analyses the problem and the following the
polluter pays principle – to pay a 0.5% levy on their profit to fund a “Social
Media Health Alliance”.

• Study designs using social media-derived data
  should be transparent and readily available to the public.
• Researchers should respect the context in which content
  is sent.
• All data that can be used to recognize tweet
  authors, including geolocations, should be available.
• No information collected from social media
  should be used to procure more data about tweet authors from other sources.
• Study designs that necessitate Data Collection from a few personalities
  rather than combined analysis entail Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval.
• Researchers should adhere to a user’s attempt to
  control his or her data by respecting privacy settings.

Social media applied in a healthcare context represent a
tempting opportunity to improve the patients’ well-being, promoting patient
care and education. The major Healthcare
Social Networking (HSN) platforms require the massive action of a medical
professional who replies to patient’s queries, also acting as moderators on
specific topics when it is needed. Healthcare social networks present several
benefits, including:

• Promoting networking and information exchange, enabling
self-education among patients about particular diseases.

• Sharing patients’ experiences that can be helpful for
other ones

• Supporting the treatment process

• Reducing the patient’s stress when he/she is waiting for a
diagnosis or when he/she discovers to be affected by a particular disease

• Promoting information gathering and prevention campaign
regarding specific diseases

• Optimizing the work of the clinical personnel who interact
with patients skilled in their diseases

• Promoting knowledge management

• Promoting research and monitoring activities

Conclusion

Social media information has the benefit that it often has a
built-in communication network back to patients. For example, Facebook now
allows users to flag posts within their system that they think may suggest
suicidal ideation. Facebook then anonymously delivers resources for entities at
risk. This study has several boundaries. Constellations of predictive words
often do not represent causal mechanisms, and the findings are correlational.
However, in enlightening, what people think, feel, and do social media capture sensitive,
cognitive, behavioural and environmental indications that have substantial Predictive
Analytics that to be validates and are otherwise rationally elusive to
researchers and clinicians.

People’s character, mental state, and health behaviours are
all reflected in their social media and all have a tremendous impact on health.
This blog is to show that language on social media can predict diagnoses within
people’s health record, revealing new prospects to personalize care and
understand how patients’ ordinary daily lives relate to their health.

Learn More

• Social Media and Health Care Professionals: Benefits, Risks, and Best Practices, 2015, C. Lee Ventola
• The wisdom of patients: Health care meets online social media, 2018, Jane Kahn
• Empowering patients through social media: The benefits and challenges, 2015, Andre Kushniruk
• Harnessing the cloud of patient experience: using social media to detect poor quality healthcare, Felix  Greaves, Daniel Ramirez-Cano, Christopher  Millett, Ara Darzi, Liam Donaldson