On-line Health Information

Here is an amazing statistic.  This fall I have been teaching a class on Health IT in Dartmouth’s new Masters of Healthcare Delivery Science program.  The students are mid-career healthcare professionals.  We had a fascinating discussion about where patients look on-line for health information.   Many of the practicing doctors mentioned specialized health websites.  NPR is running a story today on the challenges facing WebMD – but buried inside the article, we learn the real story is Facebook.  Here is the quote:

“In fact, National Research, a health care data firm, reported that 96 percent of almost 23,000 consumers it surveyed said they use Facebook — that’s right, Facebook — to find information about health care.”

http://www.marketplace.org/topics/business/fiscal-cliff-webmd-hit-patent-cliff

Welcome to the new world of social media!

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