Buzz e-sante

E-santé, télédiagnostics... le numérique nous fait basculer dans une logique de prévention renforcée. De quoi alléger les coûts pour la sécurité sociale ? Trois experts du secteur en débattent et présentent les initiatives de santé connectée de leurs organismes respectifs.

Doctors and nurses say social media including Facebook and Twitter are among their new professional tools.

More than two-thirds of physicians told surveyors in 2011 that they were utilizing some form of social media "for professional purposes," and likely that number has grown.

Alan Neuhauser, who published a piece in U.S. News & World report recently on the subject, said social media is used in varying ways, and it's helped to save time, and perhaps even lives.

"(Social media) lets (doctors and nurses) share articles and videos with a number of patients at once, it lets them monitor Twitter during big events like big games," Neuhauser told WTOP. For example, Twitter was critical to trauma teams as they awaited victims of the Boston Marathon bombing to local hospitals in 2013.

In his article, Neuhauser also talks about doctors and nurses creating their own professional Facebook pages and Twitter accounts to invite patients to weigh in and communicate. Aside from sharing information to a wider group with videos and links, they are also able to monitor the well-being of their patients on a regular basis. This has helped particularly with veterans who might not be so comfortable coming forward and asking for help.

"They have come across (Facebook) posts that let them know, that maybe a guy is having a tough day because maybe it is an anniversary of a tough event," Neuhauser pointed out. Doctors and nurses can take a more proactive role in their care as a result. The nurses he spoke to for his story say they prevented at least 12 suicides by reaching out to vets after reading their cries for help online.

As with all such technology, there are privacy concerns. While hospitals are still wary with the professional use of Facebook and Twitter, medical schools are beginning to issue guidelines, rather than prohibitions, for their use.

For whatever reason – whether it’s budget, time, buy-in or understanding – healthcare hasn’t fully embraced social media. But luckily the ePatient movement has already—perhaps unknowingly—done the grunt work and outlined the tenets of realizing social media’s value in healthcare. Patient engagement thought leaders, such as Dave deBronkart (@ePatientDave), have been indirectly driving home the values of optimal social media use for quite some time.

In the following Perspectives by Fenton + TEDMED video, ePatientDave with commentary from James Merlino, Chief Experience Officer at the Cleveland Clinic, outline the “5 Es of the ePatient,” which parallel the values health organizations should keep in mind when engaging their audiences using social media.

5 Es of the ePatient and social media
Let’s take a look at the “5 Es of the ePatient” Dave mentioned in the video, and connect them with social media:

Patients can always find a new doctor, hospitals a new technology, companies a new consultant. The name of the game in social media is value – and when done with the consumer at heart, we are only looking at a brighter and healthier healthcare ecosystem.

Qu’est-ce que l’Internet des objets ? A quoi peut servir un objet connecté ? Quels sont les chiffres de ce marché et secteur en plein développé ?

Fondée sur des moyens informatiques très puissants et les progrès de l'imagerie médicale, une nouvelle discipline tâche de révolutionner notre santé : la médecine In Silico.

The ubiquitous “Dr. Google” has allowed patients to be more involved in their own healthcare than ever before. The idea of the engaged patient, through the power of digital, has now become the “empowered” patient.

Let’s walk through an example scenario. When patients start to notice something doesn’t feel quite right, theygoogle their symptoms and make a preliminary diagnosis. These self-diagnosers find a physician with some expertise in their condition and check Google Maps to see who is convenient to their homes or offices. They assume they will end up with a specialist, so they read the local specialist reviews on Vitals and Healthgrades. In the waiting room, they post iPad updates on their situations to Twitter and Facebook. Maybe they do some last-minute research. An empowered digital patient’s relationship with “Dr. Google” doesn’t stop after communicating with their real doctor.  After the doctor visit, they research side effects of prescribed medications. They set up accounts in the physician’s EHR. Then they change social-network profile icons to show support for a cure.

While marketing has always played a role in getting new patients in the doors, it is important to not forget about sustaining relationships with the fully engaged—these are the ones who will spread the word about your organization.

Follow the digital patient journey with “Dr. Google” from start to finish in our new infographic.

Rumors of a new health-focused wristwatch from Microsoft have been swirling for some time now, and a digital health industry source told VentureBeat that those rumors are true.

What’s more, Microsoft may be in a particularly strong position to capitalize on a health-focused smartwatch, since its HealthVault data platform — which has been in existence for years and just got a refresh on June 10 — is a perfect place to store and use data from the device.

Microsoft has been trying to recruit designers and engineers in Silicon Valley to work on the device, our source said.

This seems to corroborate a late May report in Forbes citing unnamed sources saying that such a watch was in the works, although the report revealed few details of the health applications of the watch.

A patent for the device was filed two years ago. In early May the U.S. Patent Office published a 2012 Microsoft patent application describing a wristwatch with sensors in the band to detect heart rate and other biometrics.