Cleveland Clinic Advances Healthcare in Social Media

Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Cleveland Clinic is leading the field in social media healthcare.  How is this clinic a leader? If you see the site then you will understand.  It’s really amazing and helps people to interact and engage.  Before I begin telling how it does this; you’ll need a quick background on the healthcare industry and Cleveland Clinic.

The Healthcare industry in social media is on an amazing growth rate.    There are four areas that social media impacts on that concern the professional bodies.

1. Patient Engagement – people seeking internet information on symptoms and lack of professional interaction
2. Pharmacovigilance – monitoring the effects of drugs and herbal remedies in the population
3. Stakeholder Engagement – obtaining and updating stakeholders
4. Social Media Health Strategies – App development, health education and diagnosis

Cleveland Clinic (Photo credit: Valerie27)

In Robin Carey’s article for the HealthWorks Collective (part of the Social Media Today Community) she talks how Paul Matsen (an outsider from the airlines industry) helped Cleveland advance healthcare in social media.  Cleveland set its sights on becoming a credible source of information and creating inter-active patient engagement.  It created a Health Hub for healthcare industry and public by producing a patient-friendly platform.

Here is how it creates this inter-active patient engagement:

• Online Patient Service allows you access to medical record, get second opinions from medical experts and access your images
• Health information on A-Z of diseases, treatments, drugs and list of services
• You can search for a doctor by name, a specialist, hospital and site
• You can make an online appointment or contact a nurse on call
• They also provide information about parking such as valet and short or long-term; public transportation such as bus numbers and times; dining and lodging on the various hospital locations
• Give a break down of the hospitals departments e.g. cancer, children, women’s health, heart, etc
• Provide online learning centers, Q and A’s, newsletters and online chats with medical experts

Engaging physicians, professionals and academics:

• Doctors who refer patients can have a secure online access to patient’s progress and medical records
• Provide resources for medical professionals to stay abreast of medical developments
•  Provide publication to educate medical professionals
• Research updates and seminars on various departments like biomedical engineering, stem cell biology and regenerative medicine

They are active on social media platforms such as Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and Google+.

The most interesting thing about their site is that they have created a Health Hub.  This Health Hub provides information and articles from medical professionals working at the Cleveland Clinic.  The articles offer tips on healthy living, healthcare, diseases and updates to educate the public on how to improve their health.

It is the constant feedback that they receive that helps them to improve site.  So visit the Cleveland Clinic to understand how they have advanced healthcare in social media.  Is this a good site?  What do you like about the site? Do you have a better site?  What makes that site better?  What else could be done to improve social media sites?

Related articles

• Leading in Social at Cleveland Clinic by Robin Carey (healthworkscollective.com)
• Would You Treat Them Differently? (whitneyhess.com)

About Christopher Seeto

A Brand Enhancer in Communications. I fit naturally with technology, curious about science and avid consumer of news to gain insights. You can follow me on Google+ , LinkedIn , Twitter .