Cosmedia Consulting - Social Media and Marketing Company

According to the findings of a report by the Health Research Institute (HRI) at PwC US, “Social media is changing the nature of healthcare interaction, and health organizations that ignore this virtual environment may be missing opportunities to engage consumers.”

Some of the report’s findings (covering over 1,000 U.S. consumers and 124 members of the eHealth Initiative) include:

• One-third of consumers use social media sites for health-related matters. This includes not only searching for medical information but also tracking and sharing symptoms, and reviewing or sharing views about their doctors, specialists, medication, prescribed treatments, and healthcare plans.
• One in three consumers have used social media to seek the experiences of other patients’ with the same disease. This is because one in four consumers have published something on a social media site about their health condition.
• One in five of the consumers surveys said that they have joined a health forum or community.
• 41% said social media content affects what doctor, hospital or medical facility a patient chooses, while 34% make decisions about certain medication based on what people say about same online.
• A consumers choice of health insurance plan is also affected by the content they come across on social media sites (32% of those surveyed agreed with this).
• Younger adults (80%) aged between 18 and 24 are more engaged with health information through social media when compared to adults (45%) aged 45 years+.

via