1) A longitudinal study analyzed the use of social media by hospitals in 12 Western European countries over three time periods from 2009 to 2011. 2) The study found that hospitals' use of social media, especially YouTube, Twitter, and blogs, increased significantly over time. However, there were significant differences between countries. 3) Hospitals seemed to use social media primarily for promotional and recruitment purposes as opposed to direct engagement with patients. The study concluded that more research is needed on how social media can improve healthcare.

1. Use of Social Media By Western European
Nr.
363 Hospitals: A Longitudinal Study
Tom
van
de
Belt,
Sivera
Berben,
Lucien
Engelen,
Lise<e
Schoonhoven
1
Radboud
University
Nijmegen
Medical
Centre,
Radboud
Reshape
And
Innova>on
Centre,
The
Netherlands.
3 Tom van de Belt
17 others and Background
you like this * Over 60% of all online inhabitants of the EU use social media 1
@tomvandebelt (NL = 91%)
@REshape
* Facebook and Twitter are mainstream social technologies 2
Science 2.0
Friend list: * Steady adoption of blogs and explosive growth of Twitter by 500
largest US corporations 1
* Increased use of social media by hospitals in the USA 2
* Hospitals are getting aware of the benefits social media could
offer, like reaching their patients more easily 3
Like Comment Share 1 CBS 2011, 2 Bacigulpe, 2011 3 Gamble 2009
Methods Included Countries Research Question
* Longitudinal study
* 3 Measurements for each
hospital:
To which extent do European
(April ‘09 - June ‘11) hospitals use SoMe?
* Hospitals > 200 beds
* 12 European countries - In WHICH WAY are social media used?
* Social media:
- How MANY hospitals use social media?
Like Comment Share
* Validation by email
* Check with Google Twitter usage NL UK, NO = 38-50%:
* Satistical Analysis:
- Cochran’s Q + Mc Nemar’s test for post-hoc testing Twitter (%) N = 873
- Wilcoxon’s rank test for non normally distributed data 50
Results * N = 873 (25 Hospitals validated the results) 37,5
SoMe Increasingly used in all countries:
25
Youtube, Twitter, Blog (%) - 12 countries - N = 873 12,5
p=< .001 p=< .001
20
0
15 T1 T2 T3
10 NL BE LU DE AT CH
5 UK IR NO SE FI DK
0
Twitter Youtube Blog
T1 T2 T3 More Followers (p= <0.001)
Facebook Accounts and Links
T2 T3
* We distinguished between company profile pages
(inactive) and group pages (allows interaction). Twitter followers 353 515
per account (median 204) (median: 271)
* Many hospitals have Facebook Accounts e.g. UK (96%)
and Germany (67%)
Increased Youtube Activity
* Facebook accounts accessible through the hospital’s (p= <0.001)
website (links) were an exception, except for Norway and
Finland. T2 T3
Videos per 9 13
LinkedIn
channel (median: 4) (median: 7)
* 80,2% of Dutch hospitals on LinkedIn
Views per 3859 12543
channel (median 575) (median 3274)
* Observation: Often used for reqruitment of personnel
Discussion/Conclusion
- Social media usage is growing, as well as its use.
- Significant differences between countries exist
- Future research is needed to investigate how Social
Media lead to improved healthcare