Disease management and patient education is largely dominated by a traditional pedagogy. Most educators are involved in traditional forms of patient outreach and education that are both labor and resource intensive. Often times, innovations in disease education are exclusive and/or require resources, which are simply not available for educators who need to compel patients to make the necessary lifestyle changes now. Disruptive social networking and disease management technologies, however, have the ability to change this. The expansion of social networking across all demographics provides an opportunity for truly innovative learning and communication between educators and their students. By making quality interactions and information sharing accessible and efficient, social networking technologies can expand outreach, provide support and promote healthier lifestyles.
How to effectively integrate social networking into your health education program, can at times seem like a daunting task. For many, the concerns of loosing control over the narrative, patient privacy and the unknown out weigh any potential gains. That is why we will post series of blogs over the next week specifically dealing with ideas and best practices when integrating social media into your disease education and management programs.
I’m looking forward to this!