Social Media in Healthcare: Responsible Use of Illness Narratives

Patients are using social media to tell stories of their experiences of illness. These stories represent a new sort of illness narrative, which fosters connections between patients, giving rise to online communities that provide support, inform, and empower patients. In this way, the use of social media is able to improve healthcare by fulfilling some of its goals, namely promoting the overall well-being of patients. Moreover, social media offers more opportunities to tell and receive illness narratives. Increased access to patients' stories, especially for physicians, could improve healthcare as they become more aware of the experiences of their patients, which will humanize information presented to them as points of data. However, ethical issues arise when considering physicians' interactions with their patients online. Both parties must use social media responsibly, which involves attentiveness to the potential uses and limitations of social media in the healthcare setting.

Grantor dc:publisher

Wake Forest University

Year dc:date.issued

2013

Author dc:creator

• Raliski, Kathryn Elaine

• Bioethics

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/39017

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:wakespace.lib.wfu.edu:10339/39017