Criteria to Measure Social Media Value in Health Care Settings: Narrative Literature Review.

Chukwuma Ukoha,Andrew Stranieri

doi:10.2196/14684

Abstract

BackgroundWith the growing use of social media in health care settings, there is a need to measure outcomes resulting from its use to ensure continuous performance improvement. Despite the need for measurement, a unified approach for measuring the value of social media used in health care remains elusive.ObjectiveThis study aimed to elucidate how the value of social media in health care settings can be ascertained and to taxonomically identify steps and techniques in social media measurement from a review of relevant literature.MethodsA total of 65 relevant articles drawn from 341 articles on the subject of measuring social media in health care settings were qualitatively analyzed and synthesized. The articles were selected from the literature from diverse disciplines including business, information systems, medical informatics, and medicine.ResultsThe review of the literature showed different levels and focus of analysis when measuring the value of social media in health care settings. It equally showed that there are various metrics for measurement, levels of measurement, approaches to measurement, and scales of measurement. Each may be relevant, depending on the use case of social media in health care.ConclusionsA comprehensive yardstick is required to simplify the measurement of outcomes resulting from the use of social media in health care. At the moment, there is neither a consensus on what indicators to measure nor on how to measure them. We hope that this review is used as a starting point to create a comprehensive measurement criterion for social media used in health care.

Highlights

BackgroundThe use of social media in health care settings is increasingly becoming prevalent [1,2]
We have argued that the choice of measurement yardstick depends on the context, that is, the objective that underpins a health care provider’s use of social media
From the review of relevant literature, we found the following: 1. Articles on social media value can be derived from information system (IS)/information technology (IT), business, medical, or medical informatics literature

Summary

Introduction

BackgroundThe use of social media in health care settings is increasingly becoming prevalent [1,2]. Social media used in health care settings can broadly be grouped into 2 categories—general purpose Web-based social networks and online health communities [3]. General purpose Web-based social networks include most Web 2.0 websites and applications such as Facebook and Twitter that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking. Social media refers to internet-based applications that enable the creation and exchange of user-generated content [4]. It is a complex combination of sociology and technology [5]. With the growing use of social media in health care settings, there is a need to measure outcomes resulting from its use to ensure continuous performance improvement. Despite the need for measurement, a unified approach for measuring the value of social media used in health care remains elusive

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Discussion

Conclusion