Social Media Teams of Hospitals as Mediators in Digital Health Ecosystems

2019 ◽  
pp. 115-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Beier ◽  
Sebastian Früh
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Digital Health

scholarly journals COVID-19 Misinformation Online and Health Literacy: A Brief Overview

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (15) ◽  
pp. 8091
Author(s):  
Salman Bin Naeem ◽  
Maged N. Kamel Boulos
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Health Literacy ◽  
Information Content ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
The World ◽  
Synergistic Approach ◽  
Viral Nature

Low digital health literacy affects large percentages of populations around the world and is a direct contributor to the spread of COVID-19-related online misinformation (together with bots). The ease and ‘viral’ nature of social media sharing further complicate the situation. This paper provides a quick overview of the magnitude of the problem of COVID-19 misinformation on social media, its devastating effects, and its intricate relation to digital health literacy. The main strategies, methods and services that can be used to detect and prevent the spread of COVID-19 misinformation, including machine learning-based approaches, health literacy guidelines, checklists, mythbusters and fact-checkers, are then briefly reviewed. Given the complexity of the COVID-19 infodemic, it is very unlikely that any of these approaches or tools will be fully effective alone in stopping the spread of COVID-19 misinformation. Instead, a mixed, synergistic approach, combining the best of these strategies, methods, and services together, is highly recommended in tackling online health misinformation, and mitigating its negative effects in COVID-19 and future pandemics. Furthermore, techniques and tools should ideally focus on evaluating both the message (information content) and the messenger (information author/source) and not just rely on assessing the latter as a quick and easy proxy for the trustworthiness and truthfulness of the former. Surveying and improving population digital health literacy levels are also essential for future infodemic preparedness.

Mandatory vaccination against COVID-19 would be supported by less than fifty per cent: A Twitter poll analysis on public health opinion. (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentin Ritschl ◽  
Fabian Eibensteiner ◽  
Erika Mosor ◽  
Maisa Omara ◽  
Lisa Sperl ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Vaccination Coverage ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Vaccination Rate ◽  
World Health ◽  
Vaccination Coverage Rate ◽  
Twitter Users ◽  
Mandatory Vaccination

BACKGROUND On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) Emergency Committee declared the rapid worldwide spread of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) a global health emergency. By December 2020, the safety and efficacy of the first COVID-19 vaccines had been demonstrated. However, global vaccination coverage rates have remained below expectations. Mandatory vaccination is now being controversially discussed and has been enacted in some developed countries, while the vaccination rate is very low in many developing countries. We used the Twitter survey system as a viable method to quickly and comprehensively gather international public health insights on mandatory vaccination against COVID-19. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to understand better the public's perception of mandatory COVID-19 vaccination in real-time utilizing Twitter polls. METHODS Two Twitter polls were developed to seek the public's opinion on the possibility of mandatory vaccination. The polls were pinned to the Digital Health and Patient Safety Platform's Twitter timeline for one week in mid-November 2021, three days after the official public announcement of mandatory COVID-19 vaccination in Austria. Twitter users were asked to participate and retweet the polls to reach the largest possible audience. RESULTS Our Twitter polls revealed two extremes on the topic of mandatory vaccination against COVID-19. Almost half of the respondents (49% [1,246/2,545]) favour mandatory vaccination, at least in certain areas. This attitude is in contrast to the 45.7% (1,162/2,545) who categorically reject mandatory vaccination. 26.3% (621/2,365) of participating Twitter users said they would never get vaccinated, which is reflected by the current vaccination coverage rate. Concatenating interpretation of these two polls needs to be done cautiously as participating populations might greatly differ. CONCLUSIONS Mandatory vaccination against COVID-19 (in at least certain areas) is favoured by less than 50%, whereas it is vehemently opposed by almost half of the surveyed Twitter users. Since (social) media strongly influences public perceptions and views through and social media discussions and surveys specifically susceptible to the "echo chamber effect", the results can be seen as a momentary snapshot. Therefore, the results of this study need to be complemented by long-term surveys to maintain their validity.

Lessons learnt from a MOOC about social media for digital health literacy

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suleman Atique ◽  
Mowafa Hosueh ◽  
Luis Fernandez-Luque ◽  
Elia Gabarron ◽  
Marian Wan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Health Literacy ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Lessons Learnt

scholarly journals All that Glitters Is not Gold: Consumer Health Informatics and Education in the Era of Social Media and Health Apps

2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (01) ◽  
pp. 188-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Staccini ◽  
L. Fernandez-Luque ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Health Literacy ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Health Informatics ◽  
Health Management ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Consumer Health Informatics ◽  
Consumer Health ◽  
Chronic Patients

Summary Objective: To summarize the state of the art published during the year 2015 in the areas related to consumer health informatics and education with a special emphasis on unintended consequences of applying mobile and social media technologies in that domain. Methods: We conducted a systematic review of articles published in PubMed with a predefined set of queries, which lead to the selection of over 700 potential relevant articles. Section editors screened those papers on the title, abstract, and finally complete paper basis, taking into account the papers’ relevance for the section topic. The 15 most representative papers were finally selected by consensus between the two section editors and submitted for full review and scoring to external reviewers and the yearbook editors. Based on the final scoring, section editors selected the best five papers. Results: The five best papers can be grouped in two major areas: 1) Digital health literacy and 2) Quality and safety concerns. Regarding health literacy issues of patients with chronic conditions such as asthma, online interventions should rather focus on changing patient beliefs about the disease than on supporting them in the management of their pathology since personally controlled health management systems do not show expected benefits,. Nevertheless, encouraging and training chronic patients for an active online health information–seeking behaviour substantially decreases state anxiety level. Regarding safety and privacy issues, even recommended health-related apps available on mobile phones do not guarantee personal data protection. Furthermore, the analysis indicated that patients undergoing Internet interventions experienced at least one adverse event that might be related to treatment. At least, predictive factors have been identified in order to credit or not a health rumour. Conclusions: Trusting digital and connected health can be achieved if patients, health care professionals, and industrials build a shared model of health data management integrating ethics rules. Only increasing efforts in education with regards of digital health would help reach this goal., This would not resolve all frauds and security issues but at least improve their detection.

scholarly journals A retrospective analysis of NIH-funded digital health research using social media platforms

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 205520761990108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camille Nebeker ◽  
Sarah E. Dunseath ◽  
Rubi Linares-Orozco
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Retrospective Analysis ◽  
Health Research ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Social Media Platforms

scholarly journals Round table: Online anti-vaccination movements: the role of social media in public health communications

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Hpv Vaccine ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
World Health ◽  
Swine Flu ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Digital health has revolutionised healthcare, with implications for understanding public reaction to health emergencies and interventions. Social media provides a space where like-minded people can share interests and concerns in real-time, regardless of their location. This can be a force for good, as platforms like Twitter can spread correct information about outbreaks, for example in the 2009 swine flu pandemic. However, social media can also disseminate incorrect information or deliberately spread misinformation leading to adverse public health sentiment and outcomes. The current issues around trust in vaccines is the best-known example. Vaccine hesitancy, traditionally linked to issues of trust, misinformation and prior beliefs, has been increasingly fueled by influential groups on social media and the Internet. Ultimately, anti-vaccination movements have the potential to lead to outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases, especially if refusal is concentrated locally, creating vulnerable populations. For example, 2018-19 saw a large increase in incidence of measles in the US and Europe (where cases tripled from 2017), two regions where the disease was already or almost eliminated. In 2019, the World Health Organisation listed anti-vaccination movements as one of the top 10 threats to global public health. HPV vaccination is another example of the impact of anti-vaccination movements. As viral videos originating on YouTube spread across social networks, uptake has tumbled in a number of countries, with Japan, Denmark, Colombia and Ireland being badly hit. In Japan, the government came under sufficient pressure that they de-recommended HPV vaccine, seeing an 80% uptake rate fall below 1% in 2014. There have been reports of successful interventions by national governments. A recent campaign run by the HPV Alliance (a coalition of some 35 private companies, charities and public institutions) in Ireland has seen rates below 40% back up to a national average of 75%. A combination of hard-hitting personal testimonials, social media and traditional media promoted the HPV vaccine. Despite this, systematic engagement and supranational strategies are still in the early stages of being formulated. As misleading information spread through social media and digital networks has undesirable impact on attitudes to vaccination (and uptake rates), urgent actions are required. Analysis and visualisation techniques mining data streams from social media platforms, such as Twitter, Youtube enable real-time understanding of vaccine sentiments and information flows. Through identification of key influencers and flashpoints in articles about vaccination going viral, targeted public health responses could be developed. This roundtable discussion will showcase different ways in which media and social networks, accessible in real-time provide an opportunity for detecting a change in public confidence in vaccines, for identifying users and rumors and for assessing potential impact in order to know how to best respond. Key messages Social media has significantly enhanced our understanding of anti-vaccination movements and potential impact on public health attitudes and behaviors regarding vaccination. Innovative methods of analysing social media data, from digital health, data science and computer science, have an important role in developing health promotions to counter anti-vaccination movements.

scholarly journals The Application of the Principles of Responsible AI on Social Media Marketing for Digital Health

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rui Liu ◽  
Suraksha Gupta ◽  
Parth Patel
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Social Media Marketing ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Research Propositions ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Depth Interviews

AbstractSocial media enables medical professionals and authorities to share, disseminate, monitor, and manage health-related information digitally through online communities such as Twitter and Facebook. Simultaneously, artificial intelligence (AI) powered social media offers digital capabilities for organizations to select, screen, detect and predict problems with possible solutions through digital health data. Both the patients and healthcare professionals have benefited from such improvements. However, arising ethical concerns related to the use of AI raised by stakeholders need scrutiny which could help organizations obtain trust, minimize privacy invasion, and eventually facilitate the responsible success of AI-enabled social media operations. This paper examines the impact of responsible AI on businesses using insights from analysis of 25 in-depth interviews of health care professionals. The exploratory analysis conducted revealed that abiding by the responsible AI principles can allow healthcare businesses to better take advantage of the improved effectiveness of their social media marketing initiatives with their users. The analysis is further used to offer research propositions and conclusions, and the contributions and limitations of the study have been discussed.

scholarly journals Exploring Children's Computer Literacy Practices Through a Digital Health Literacy Lens: A Pilot Study (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorie Donelle ◽  
Danica Facca ◽  
Shauna Burke ◽  
Bradley Hiebert ◽  
Emma Bender ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Health Literacy ◽  
Pilot Study ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Computer Literacy ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Personal Information ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Health Promotion Program ◽  
Digital Devices

BACKGROUND In our digitally driven age it is no surprise that children are becoming regular users of information and communication devices such as tablets, smartphones, and social media. Although a growing body of literature continues to investigate children’s use of these digital devices, attention to elements of children’s digital health literacy is limited. Digital health literacy, a more recent term for eHealth literacy, is the combination of diverse literacies and proficiencies needed to access and critically evaluate information within Web 1.0 and 2.0 contexts. A fundamental component of digital health literacy is computer literacy which involves context-specific elements such as a user’s distribution of personal information and exercise of privacy settings. OBJECTIVE The objective of this pilot study was to explore children’s computer literacy practices through their social media use. METHODS The study used a cross sectional survey with 42 young children aged six to 10 years who were enrolled in an after-school health promotion program in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. RESULTS Results indicated that young children share their personal information online through social media and download applications to the digital devices they use without consistent parental supervision or adult (teacher) oversight. CONCLUSIONS In order to support young children’s self-directed exploration and use of social media, deeper examination of computer literacy, among other aspects of digital health literacy, is warranted so parents, educators, and researchers alike can respect and support children’s learning and wellbeing as independent users of digital devices.

scholarly journals Digital health literacy and online information seeking in times of COVID-19. A cross-sectional survey among university students in Germany (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Dadaczynski ◽  
Orkan Okan ◽  
Melanie Messer ◽  
Angela Y. M. Leung ◽  
Rafaela Rosário ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Health Literacy ◽  
University Students ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Online Information ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Online Information Seeking

BACKGROUND Digital communication technologies play an important role in governments’ and public health authorities’ health communication strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic. The internet and social media have become important sources of health-related information on the coronavirus and on protective behaviours. In addition, the COVID-19 infodemic spreads faster than the coronavirus itself, which interferes with governmental health-related communication efforts. This puts national public health containment strategies in jeopardy. Therefore, digital health literacy is a key competence to navigate coronavirus-related information and service environments. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to investigate university students’ digital health literacy and online information seeking behaviours during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic in Germany. METHODS A cross-sectional study among N=14,916 university students aged ≥18 from 130 universities across all sixteen federal states of Germany was conducted using an online survey. Along with sociodemographic characteristics (sex, age, subjective social status) measures included five subscales from the Digital Health Literacy Instrument (DHLI), which was adapted to the specific coronavirus context. Online information seeking behaviour was investigated by examining the online sources used by university students and the topics that students search for in connection with the coronavirus. Data were analysed using univariate and bivariate analyses. RESULTS Across digital health literacy dimensions, the greatest difficulties could be found for assessing the reliability of health-related information (42.3%) and the ability to determine whether the information was written with commercial interest (38.9%). Moreover, respondents also indicated that they most frequently have problems finding the information they are looking for (30.4%). When stratified according to sociodemographic characteristics, significant differences were found with female university students reporting a lower DHLI for the dimensions of ‘information searching’ and of ‘evaluating reliability’. Search engines, news portals and public bodies’ websites were most often used by the respondents as sources to search for information on COVID-19 and related issues. Female students were found to use social media and health portals more frequently, while male students used Wikipedia and other online encyclopaedias as well as YouTube more often. The use of social media was associated with a low ability to critically evaluate information, while opposite differences were observed for the use of public websites. CONCLUSIONS Although digital health literacy is, in summary, well developed in university students, a significant proportion of students still face difficulties with certain abilities to deal with information. There is need to strengthen the digital health literacy capacities of university students using tailored interventions. Improving the quality of health-related information on the internet is also key. CLINICALTRIAL

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document