Healthcare professionals, patients, and organizations are increasingly using social media. Doctors are thought leaders who educate patients and influence media coverage of health topics through social networks like Twitter. Patients use online forums and Facebook groups to learn about treatments and connect with others. Healthcare companies are also engaging online through content like education, events, news, and patient stories to build their brands and recruit for clinical trials. Social media allows all these groups to communicate in new ways that can make a positive impact on health.

1. Healthcare and Social Media –
Making a Difference Online
Missy Berggren
Social Media & Engagement Director
April 2015
Healthcare Leadership Forum
University of Minnesota, Division of Gynecologic Oncology
@marketingmama

2. @marketingmama

3. MISSY BERGGREN
DIRECTOR
Missy Berggren has 17 years of healthcare and nonprofit marketing and communications experience, including
social media, branding, digital, advertising, executive communications and more. Since joining WCG in 2013,
Missy has worked with medical device and pharmaceutical companies, in addition to cutting her teeth on
consumer goods companies.
Missy is also a blogger (marketingmama.com) where she covers a variety of parenting and health topics in her
free time. She is the director of strategic planning for the Social Media Breakfast of Minneapolis/St. Paul and
the founder of the MN Blogger Conference (est. 2010).
Missy has been recognized as a “Top Ten Titan in Social Media” in the Twin Cities and one of 11 “Top Tweeps
in the Twin Cities” by KARE11, MN Hospital Association Community Benefit awards, Telly Award finalist,
Healthcare advertising awards and more. Missy received her degree in public relations and mass
communications from Drake University.
@marketingmama

4. WHAT SOCIAL MEDIA IS AND ISN’T
Social Media IS NOT An
Assortment of Tools & Sites
Social Media IS How People
Communicate Today
12 @marketingmama
Courtesy of Greg Matthews, MDigital Life, part of WCG

5. Large • 1B unique
users per
month
• Over 1 billion
users
• Over 750 million
mobile app users
• 500M users • Over 200
million
members
• 27% of visits
via mobile
Engaged • 4th most
visited site
• Over 50% of
users log
in daily
• Over 4.5 billion
daily likes
• Average of
400M daily
tweets
• Average of
17 minutes
spent on site
per month
Note: Global Data, Self-reported stats by each company in 2013
FUELED IN PART BY THE “BIG FOUR”
13 @marketingmama
Courtesy of Greg Matthews, MDigital Life, part of WCG

6. MAKING A DIFFERENCE ONLINE
Healthcare
Professionals
Patients
@marketingmama
Healthcare
Companies &
Organizations

7. WHY SHOULD HCPS BE ONLINE?
• Connect with peers locally and globally
• Educate patients
• Listen to what patients & media are talking about
• Thought leadership – share important research/news
• Take a stand on something you believe in
• Influence your search results
@marketingmama

8. DOCTORS LEAD THE NEWS IN HEALTH
• A relatively unknown pediatrician,
Jamie Friedman, MD, in San Diego
tweeted the story 16 hours before
the department of health
announcement
• She was subsequently interviewed
by Liz Szabo of USA Today
@marketingmama
@DrJaimeFriedman on Twitter
Blogs at drjaimefriedman.com
Example courtesy of Greg Matthews, MDigital Life, part of WCG

9. DOCTORS POLICE THE NEWS IN HEALTH
• When the Toronto Star ran a misleading
piece about the dangers of the HPV
vaccine, Dr. Jen Gunter led the charge to
refute it & was joined by hundreds more
doctors
• The Star first posted a disclaimer, then
changed the title, then retracted the post
altogether
@marketingmama
@DrJenGunter on Twitter
Blogs at drjengunter.com
Example courtesy of Greg Matthews, MDigital Life, part of WCG

10. 61% of physicians…
consult social media
weekly for medical
information3
3. McGowan BS, Wasko M, Vartabedian BS, Miller RS, Freiherr DD, Abdolrasulnia M. Understanding the
Factors That Influence the Adoption and Meaningful Use of Social Media by Physicians to Share Medical
Information. J Med Internet Res 2012;14(5):e117
ONLINE DOCTORS ARE INFLUENTIAL AND ACTIVE
15 @marketingmama

11. IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD - EMIL LOU, MD, PHD
@marketingmama
@cancerassassin1 on Twitter

12. MAYO CLINIC LEADING THE WAY
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13. FARRIS TIMIMI, MD, CARDIOLOGIST
@marketingmama
Twitter: @FarrisTimimi
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/841381
Dr Timimi: “I would say don't lie, don't pry, don't
cheat, you can't delete, don't steal, and don't
reveal.”

14. PHYSICIAN SITE - SERMO
• All of SERMO's 343,000 members
are verified and credentialized US
(40 percent of US MDs and
Doctors of Osteophathy) and UK
physicians
• Call themselves the leading private
network for physicians to connect,
stay informed & solve problems
• “I actually shared mistakes for the
benefit of my colleagues on
SERMO...but would not have done
that if my employer or my peers
could identify me.”
@marketingmama

15. PHYSICIAN SITE - DOXIMITY
• Doximity's 250,000 members represent
about 40% of all doctors in the US,
according to the company. Most of the
free site's traffic consists of HIPAA-
compliant one-to-one messages and
discussion forums that focus on
business challenges or diagnoses.
• Find medical advice and best-practices,
job openings and career tips, research
and product information, as well as the
opportunity to securely communicate
with peers.
@marketingmama

16. 61% of physicians consult social media weekly
for medical information
There is a new KOL emerging. Physicians are no
longer just prescribers. They are the media.
The 1st and only database in the world to map physicians’ digital
footprint to their national physician registry
The
MDigitalLife
dataset
Understanding, Engaging and Activating physicians in the digital age
Connects online and offline behavior
such as referral patterns, prescribing
history & Medicare billing
510,494
physician digital footprints mapped as
of March 3, 2015
Debuted at the Mayo Clinic in
October 2012

17. PATIENTS WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU
• Doctors and their staff are patients’
most-trusted source for online
health information1
• ~5,000 doctors post daily on their
blogs and twitter accounts2
#1: Physician group/medical practice
1What Health Info Do Consumers Seek Online?. eMarketer, February 28, 2013
2MDigitalLife study, Date range 10/7/13 – 10/7/14
14 @marketingmama

18. MOST POPULAR GYN ONCS ON TWITTER
@marketingmama
GYN ONC analytics as of April 2015 courtesy of MDigital Life, part of WCG

19. @marketingmama
GYN ONC analytics as of April 2015 courtesy of MDigital Life, part of WCG

20. GYN ONCS TWITTER BEHAVIOR
@marketingmama
Peaks Wednesdays and Saturdays Peaks 8-10 a.m. and 8-9 p.m.
GYN ONC analytics as of April 2015 courtesy of MDigital Life, part of WCG

21. TOP HASHTAGS BY GYN ONCS
1. #gyncsm
2. #sgo2015
3. #cancer
4. #ovariancancer
5. #womenshealth
6. #hpv
7. #brca
8. #endcancer
9. #cervicalcancer
10. #breastcancer
@marketingmama
GYN ONC analytics as of April 2015 courtesy of MDigital Life, part of WCG

22. #GYNCSM ON TWITTER
@marketingmama

23. USE CAUTION ON SOCIAL MEDIA
• Engaging with patients – to friend or
not-to-friend?
• Health education vs. medical advice
• Professionalism and reputation
management
• What constitutes “endorsement?”
16 @marketingmama
Courtesy of Greg Matthews, MDigital Life, part of WCG

24. WHY SHOULD PATIENTS GET ONLINE
• Research doctors, medications &
treatments
• Find a community of people like
themselves
– Facebook groups
– Twitter (hashtags)
– Forums
– Blogs
• Share personal experiences with
drugs, doctors
• Find and share the latest disease
news
72% of internet users
say they looked online
for health information
within the past year
@marketingmama
A group of food allergy bloggers gather in person
at an event hosted by Mylan Pharmaceutical
Statistic source: PEW Internet Survey 2013 http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/health-fact-sheet/

25. PATIENT FORUMS
@marketingmama

26. GETTING SUPPORT ONLINE
Public post on cancerforums.net
@marketingmama

27. PATIENT SUPPORT GROUPS & PAGES ON FACEBOOK
@marketingmama

28. PATIENT BLOGGER EXAMPLES

29. WHY SHOULD HEALTHCARE COMPANIES
& ORGANIZATIONS ENGAGE ONLINE?
• Brand awareness
• Engagement & customer advocacy
• PR Opportunities
• Customer service
• Reputation management
• Thought leadership
• Engage with influencers
@marketingmama

30. EXAMPLES
@marketingmama

31. INTERNET IS #1 WAY PATIENTS LEARN ABOUT CLINICAL TRIALS
31 @marketingmama
Source: Center for Information and Study on Clinical Research Participation, 2013 Study

32. CONTENT MIX EXAMPLE
• Health Education – include helpful exercise
tips, recipes or general health education
from your team
• Events – create a Facebook “event page”
and post to your timeline to encourage
attendance
32
• Health News – news stories relevant to your patients, may or may not include
quotes from your team
• Patient Stories – with permission and a signed release, share photos and inspiring
quotes from patients
• Trial Recruitment – share links to information on clinical research trials at your site
Education News Events Stories Trial
@marketingmama

33. LEVERAGING PHYSICIAN’S VOICE IS SMART
• HCP’s voice in social media content is gold
• Tell your marketing team you are online so
they can tag you & RT you
• Share their news as well to your network
@marketingmama
Seattle Children’s gets approx 3.5
RT for each tweet.
When they tag Wendy Sue
Swanson, MD, in the tweet
(@seattlemamadoc), the RT rate is
25% higher!
Example courtesy of Greg Matthews, MDigital Life, part of WCG

34. TAKEAWAYS
• The way we communicate is changing
• Patients are online and want you to be there, too
• Listening to authentic patient voices online can give you
insight to patient journey
• The news media is looking to docs online for sources to tell
important stories
• You can build amazing relationships with peers around the
globe
• You can make a difference in even more lives!

35. WCG HELPS ORGS & HCPS ACTIVATE & NAVIGATE
• Online activation trainings (half day/full day)
• Individual HCP and/or leadership trainings
• Social media strategy & content development
• Speak at physician meetings on social media
• Speak at meetings like these!
We also do digital, PR, comms, influencer strategy & engagement and more!

36. Missy Berggren
@marketingmama
mberggren@wcgworld.com
linkedin.com/in/missyberggren
CONTACT INFORMATION

37. THANK YOU!