Social Media in Healthcare: Opportunities and Challenges

Understand how social media is used in healthcare to improve communication.

Social media has emerged as a new channel for both seeking information, and for creating and exchanging user-generated content among peers.

But as the amount of information being uploaded to social networks such as Facebook, Whatsapp or YouTube continues to grow, it is becoming increasingly difficult to discern reliable health information from misleading content.

This course for anyone who is looking into the opportunities and challenges of using social media in healthcare, including as a mass communication tool during infectious disease epidemics.

This course provides practical guidance to healthcare providers, patients and researchers. It is suitable for anyone who is interested in public health, and using information technology for improving health quality and patients’ safety.

The course is taught in English but we also offer Traditional Chinese subtitles on the videos.

• Introduction to social media and networking
• What happens when "social media" run into "healthcare"?
• Social media in healthcare: the good
• The bad and the ugly
• Social media generated big data
• Social media and big data
• Gamification and social media for health behaviour change
• Gamification and social media
• Social media and health communication crisis
• Social media and health communication crisis
• Two viewpoints: hospitals and patients
• Use of social media by hospitals and health authorities
• What can patients do for themselves via social media?
• Assessment time