A New Connection Between Patients

Copyright (c) 2012 Social-medicine.org

Patients are advocates of networking with other patients and are encouraging them to join in this social networking revolution, to talk about the various stages of their illness online.

It's obviously an overwhelming feeling when someone finds out they are diagnosed with an illness or disease. Suffers feel isolated, alone and disconnected from the world, often the patients around them can support them but cannot relate to them. The communities found online in medical social networking sites provide support and help suffers with acceptance of their illness.

The majority of patients seek medical or health information online. Even when they themselves are not Internet savvy, they continue to search for additional information wherever found. Patients look for anything that provides them with comfort, good news, but it is true that depending on their personality type, they will only see the positive or the negative, or get both sides and confuse themselves even more.

Many patients start with searching for information, on their symptoms in search engines like Google, and get thousands of results, often with conflicting opinions. Among the results, patients find results on medical social networks, including information from forums, Facebook and Twitter. These platforms allow patients to ask others found on medical social networking sites for advice.

Medical social networking has similar power as that of word of mouth; except medical social networking spreads faster and to vast amount of patients suffering from similar symptoms.

Patients will also seek advice, from medical social networking sites, on which medical practitioner to see. Searching on broader social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter results in many opinions for advice on medical practitioners. These broad social networking sites may sometimes provide the opportunity to communicate with others suffering from similar conditions. Rating sites for medical practitioners, hospitals and comments are available but underused.

The social aspects of illness and how patients deal with illness on a global scale have always been hard to analyse. While personal data can be kept anonymous, the ability to research on illnesses is greatly increased and will hopefully lead to a greater understanding of patients and the impact illnesses have on their lives.

Medical practitioners provide recommendations of online health communities. The benefits to joining such a community include feeling less alone, learning how others are treating similar condition, how others are feeling, and what does and does not work for other patients suffering with similar conditions.

Patients want comfort, and talking to others suffering from the same condition gives them piece of mind, knowing that they are not alone. Learning what has worked for others, what hasn't worked for others, is their disease progressing fast or slow, what they have been told to do next and how they are coping, are all strategies to help them through their illness.

Being open about symptoms means sharing information about their sufferings, often giving up some privacy about that medical condition. It is up to the individual to share personal medical information that may identify them in the real world. Individuals have the ability to share or prevent their details online, restricting accessibility to others.

Patients are searching for a site that fosters a community support, where other patients in similar situations come together, to circumvent negative feelings like disconnection and loneliness, and focus on improving self-esteem, understanding, communication, relationships, and peer support.

Comments? Questions? Email Here

© HowtoAdvice.com

How to Advice .com