Michael Seres and Marion O'Connor deliver the keynote address opening the Patient neXt symposium at Medicine X 2013. Michael, a Crohn's disease ePatient and bowel transplant recipient, speaks with Marion, lead specialist dietitian from Oxford University Hospital and one of Michael's closest health advisors, about the burgeoning impact of social media on health and medicine.

1. Medicine X
The United Kingdom comes to town

2. MY TRANSPLANT JOURNEY

3. Diagnosed in 1960’s
First surgery in 1970’s 4 surgeries down by 1980’s
Career halted in 1990’s By 2000’s not much
bowel left
2010 intestinal failure Bowel transplant
HOW MY ILLNESS WAS COMMUNICATED TO ME

4. The
doctor
decides
The CEO
decides
The
INSURER
decides
The
Hospital/NHS
decides
Actually the
patient decidedWHO DECIDES ON YOUR CARE?

5. My Patient dashboard

6. Marion O’Connor
• Specialist dietician at NHS
• Lead specialist dietician at Oxford University Hospitals
• Provides in-patient and out-patient dietetic service at Nuffield Health,
The Manor Hospital Oxford
• Specific experience in:
• Complex chronic illness
• Inflammatory bowel disease
• Intestinal Failure
• Short bowel syndrome
• Intestinal Transplantation

7. Marion….
• Provides nutrition seminars for Industry and groups
• Key note speaker to health professionals on various aspects of clinical
nutrition
• Published author writing for journals and health magazines

8. It started with a blog

9. Communication can be as simple as a
text
Clear
Instructions
1. Increased patient
satisfaction
2. What is needed

10. It can be via twitter
Blood results

11. Or even email

12. Patients can have a greater impact than
doctors

13. 4 months later another patient is having a
transplant

14. Marion’s engagement rule
1. Be yourself
2. Only say on line what you would
say in clinic – Be professional
3. Respond to both negative &
positive comments.
4. Treat patients as intelligent
individuals
5. Remember online
communication isn’t for
everyone

15. Patients can be
innovators

16. They can impact the hospital wards

18. It is not just patients who believe in social
media
What the Mayo Clinic says
“The biggest risk in health care social
media is not participating in the
conversation”
Farris Timimi, M.D., is medical director for the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media
What the NHS says
"We trust our staff with patients’
lives, so why don’t we trust them
with social media?”
Extract from - January 2013 Briefing 87 NHS An essential guide for HR directors and Managers in
social media

19. Does technology help in practical terms?
• Improves communication -
• doctor – patient
• Doctor - doctor
• Improves compliance
• With medications
• With complex conditions
• Increases patient engagement
• Patients like to be able to access advice when they feel anxious or have
questions.
• Waiting can often exacerbate the anxiety