Social media supremacy: a force of change paving the way for the next generation of healthcare and research

摘要

This month's opinion draws on an EBN Twitter chat that focused on using social media in healthcare. Access the blog at http://blogs.bmj.com/ebn/ and the Storify at http://storify.com/SimonRStones/healthcare-2-0. Background: Social media is an interactive communication platform that enables conversations among individuals. The presence and use of social media has grown exponentially in the last decade, revolutionising the way in which we communicate with each other. The phrase social media is often used interchangeably to describe popular social networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. With a generation of millennials who are likely to seek initial medical advice from the internet, the healthcare community must embrace social media and its relevance to modern society. Considering over 40% of people are influenced by health-related material found on social media, the healthcare community, including patient organisations, must ensure that accessible, evidence-based information is freely available through social media to attenuate potentially misleading or inaccurate information.