Facebook with your Doctor

Interesting article on using social networking sites to increase communication and accessibility between patients and doctors.

A study by Manhattan Research of nearly 9,000 U.S. adults showed that last year, 5 percent of respondents had sent or received an e-mail message to a doctor and that 49 percent were interested in doing so in the future.

I personally utilize facebook and twitter everyday, so these forms of communication are not foreign to me. What I do not like about these social networking sites in the medical industry is security. That is why at exclusiveMD we have a SECURE Patient Portal that only the patient and doctor can access. The beauty of the portal is that the speed and accessibility is equivalent to using facebook or twitter. If your physician currently does not utilize more forms technology to increase access it could be for several reasons. It could be with unfamiliarity with these sites but that would be less likely. Insurance reimbursements on the other hand are a huge proponent to why the medical industry does not utilize this technology. They flat out will not pay for facebook or twitter.

Facebook with your Doctor