#ClinMed: What have social media got to do with medicine?

摘要

It is a Monday afternoon and Archi Shrimpton (Twitter user-name @arrcheee) is worried about his sore thumb; worried to the point that he 'Tweets' to NHS Direct (@nhsdirect) to ask their advice:'Thumbs still not good a week after injuring at judo-slightly different shape, hurts when applying pressure-GP or Minor Injuries? @nhsdirect'11 minutes later, @NHSdirect reply:'@arrcheee Check your symptoms here Archie - https://www.nhsdirect. nhs.uk/CheckSymptoms/...'It's a very brief and very quick interaction, but an example of how social media can be utilised for healthcare.Recent figures show that Twitter has 140 million active users worldwide, Facebook has shot past 900 million users, and one hour of video is uploaded to You Tube every second. Journalists, MPs, policy-makers, footballers, celebrities; everyone, it seems, is using social media.The statistics are impressive, but more interesting is the public's use of these platforms for health-related matters.