And then, what we’re doing to start with, we’ll have it be an extension of our existing groups. So a patient who has just completed a diabetes management class will be engaged both in the group and by using that platform to extend the group afterwards. We’re starting with diabetes. We have an addiction group that we’ll use it for. Chronic pain, childhood obesity, and then we have an alternative medicine group that we’re going to use for it.
West County Health Centers social media platform Source: WellFX
It sounds like you’re going to keep this platform fairly exclusive, limited to your patients, at first?
In concept, it’s a product that we are investing in, and we have allowed into that world patients who are active members of ours. We’re doing it with it a number of our sister clinics because there has to be enough volume to make this work. It’s not exclusive; it’s an extension of our own relationship, of our own product, rather than just a free world. If you think about that from a healthcare strategic perspective, that may be a part of what enhances our platform offer for other patients.
You mentioned security was one of your chief concerns with implementing a social media platform, what are any others you’ve had?
Our ability to have enough of a base of patients to engage with each other was an initial concern. We were also concerned about patients saying things online that we may be responsible for. If they had a dialogue online that had clinical implications, we wanted to set up the platform that we were not driving them to get advice from us on that platform. Part of the reason we went in with multiple health centers was to make it bigger than us, for that patient expectation.
How will you mark progress on this initiative? Where do you see it going in the next few years?
We have a number of tools that we use to monitor the patients’ self-management, and their feelings about their health. There is a tool that monitors their perception of their health, and one called a patient activation measure, which measures their ability to self-manage. We’re going to measure those outcomes for patients participating in these groups, online or not. We’re also measuring their clinical outcomes around specific chronic illnesses. We’re also measuring their satisfaction of the product, and their perception of how it changes their behavior around chronic illness.
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Comments
Bravo to West County
Thanks for writing this story Gabriel. How wonderful to see a provider creating their own customized social media platform to encourage patient engagement that could help to reduce the effects of chronic illness and have them take more of a vested interest in their care.
I expect to see providers following suit and using the collective power of social media to help get patients paying more attention and communicating with others. The one question I have is - what is West County doing for its less fortunate patients who may not have access to a computer or other device to participate in the social media platform? I'd hate to see a majority of patients unable to participate just because they don't have the means and it sort of defeats the purpose of the platform.
Did they give you any feedback on this?
Thanks for the comment
Hi there,
Thanks for the comment. I agree, we're going to see more providers try to leverage the power of social media with their own specially designed platforms. The potential is too strong, and the HIPAA type privacy concerns rule out popular third-party platforms. So these kinds of platforms have a future.
That's a great question about the less fortunate patients, I'm going to have ask Dr. Cunningham. I didn't ask him, but I wish I had! I know of some providers that have tablets and computers for use inside their organization. That's a possibility.
Thanks!
Gabe