Panel on social media for consumer health

Abstract

Community-based social media, characterized by its ability to glean collective wisdom through supporting communication, information sharing, and collaboration between individual users, is imposing a greater impact on people’s daily information seeking, knowledge construction, and decision making. Unsurprisingly, the impact of social media has extended to the health care domain, as consumers have begun to share healthrelated experiences and knowledge online [4]. Currently, about one-third of Americans who go online to research their health use social networks to find fellow patients and discuss their conditions [1], and 36% of social network users evaluate and leverage other consumers’ knowledge before making healthcare decisions, such as choosing providers, determining a course of treatment, and managing their health risks [3]. In a recent study, Pew Research declares that social media sites are becoming important hubs for health advice [2].