Social Media: A Health Hazard‪?‬

To many members of the healthcare industry, the phrase social media doesn’t exactly conjure the words “like” or “share.” Instead, they hear “8-hour-long regulatory review,” or “hundreds of millions in federal fines.” Visions of PR and, worse, legal nightmares dance in their heads. It’s no surprise: compared with the digital progress of healthcare, social media are a recklessly fast-moving phenomena. They do not wait for regulations. There are no trials. Facebook, for an obvious example, launched in 2004, topped 100 million users in 2008, and then hit 1,310 million monthly active users by the end of 2013.1 In the time it would take a medical researcher to get some solid clinical results, Facebook’s appearance, advertising policy and privacy policy have changed countless times to accommodate its evolving business model. In this paper we look at the challenges and enormous opportunities presented in healthcare.