Abstract
The health-care industry has embraced social media technologies and utilized those technologies to facilitate and realize consumer health informatics. Health consumers (e.g., patients and caregivers) use social media platforms to actively participate in their health care through exchanging social support with each other and communicating with health professionals on those platforms. This chapter aims to shed light on various aspects of social media in health care. Applications and implications of social media for health consumers, providers, and organizations are discussed. A distinction is made between general-purpose online social networks (OSNs) and virtual health communities (VHCs). The notion of patient-centered e-health applications and the connection between this concept and social media in health care are explained. A typology of collaboration platforms that are currently utilized or can be provided by VHCs is presented. The opportunities and challenges offered by VHC platforms and websites are also discussed in the chapter.
Keywords
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Kordzadeh, N. (2016). Social Media in Health Care. In: Wickramasinghe, N., Troshani, I., Tan, J. (eds) Contemporary Consumer Health Informatics. Healthcare Delivery in the Information Age. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25973-4_6
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