STRAIGHT TALK
ANDREW M. FREEMAN, MD
Using Social Media
to Treat CV Disease
S
ocial media is here to stay. Be it your neighborhood chatting about issues, events, or
sales on NextDoor.com; finding and keeping
up with your friends on Facebook; meeting others
to do common activities on Meetup.com; catching
the latest news or research soundbite on Twitter; or
participating in “Tweetups” at meetings like ACC’s
Annual Scientific Session, social media is integrated
into so many aspects of our lives.
When cell phones became easily available to
the masses, they caused a revolution in how we
do things and how we keep in touch. Similarly,
social media is transforming how we share and
receive information. Medicine, still relying on
paper and faxes in much of the world, is always
the slowest to catch up. But with more and more
of our patients using social media every day for
personal reasons, as well as to find health information or support networks, there is a need for
us—the providers—to keep up. In a 2013 editorial in Circulation, Katherine C. Chretien, MD;
Terry Kind, MD, MP, note that patients want to
use social media for things like appointment or
medication reminders, health information sharing, or answering general questions.
tura Health System, are offering online, personal
consultations (akin to a secure videoconference
session). Many of these consultations are simple
fee-for-service and thus not easily and readily
available to everyone. However, some of these
sites allow the public to ask generic questions
with physicians and other health care professionals providing general answers.
For the video-inclined, YouTube also allows
comments, posting, and is social-media enabled.
Many health care institutions are capturing expert, patient-focused video and presenting it via
social media on YouTube. The ACC’s CardioSmart
YouTube channel also offers a number of patient
education videos around specific cardiovascular
procedures or lifestyle choices.
One of the more innovative ways social media is being used is to challenge and empower
patients to take tangible actions to improve
health. For example, a number of services will
send medication reminders via social media
or text, or provide daily health tips related to
things like smoking cessation, diet or exercise. Other programs such as Walk with a Doc
(walkwithadoc.org) use social media outlets to
e know that an empowered and
W
engaged patient does better clinically
than one who is apathetic.
This is all well and good in theory, but how do
we actually do this in ways that are meaningful
and useful for our patients? While the answer to
this question is constantly evolving, it does seem
that using social media as means of educating
patients, is the most logical place to start.
We know that an empowered and engaged patient does better clinically than one who is apathetic.
Some sites such as HealthTap, and leading
institutions such as the Cleveland Clinic and Cen-
ACC.org/CSWN
promote and engage the public to use exercise as
medicine to improve outcomes.
When it comes to virtual support, F