Coordinating Unlikely Companions? Patient Portals and Social Media

Abstract

Healthcare knowledge management systems have traditionally been developed, implemented, and utilized in very different spheres. A patient care system or provider portal is typically institutional in nature, provides historical data on physician or hospital visits and medical tests, with limited, if any, interfaces to the variety of comprehensive patient care websites, applications, and other publicly available tools. Social media, in contrast, may be organization based or public and contain information that is publicly available or exclusive to a selected community. Integrated platform support for both types of systems is not available for the pediatric oncology caregiver under a single interface. A review of literature has identified a void in understanding if broadening knowledge management systems can enable more effective pediatric oncology care practice. A survey of pediatric oncology professionals provided insights on willingness to use social media. Professional concerns, in part personal liability and patient security, represent initial findings. Based on these findings, a conceptual process framework to integrate patient portals and social media platforms is presented. The framework objective is to enable practical implementation for managers in organizations looking for a reliable, trustworthy, and secure knowledge management platform.