Patients can take the wheel of their health, thanks to social media.

In this episode of the Straight Out of Health IT podcast, Grace Cordovano, founder of Enlightening Results, and Grace Vinton, patient advocate, talk about social media as a powerful medium to access medical information, connect providers with their patients, and amplify the patients’ voices. On Grace Vinton’s podcast, HIT Like a Girl, women share patient stories, discuss how to include patient and caregiver voices in innovation processes, and amplify women's work in the healthcare industry to make a positive impact. At Enlightening Results, Dr. Grace Codovano works to decrease the patient administrative burden caused by all the tasks and bureaucratic steps they or their caregivers must take in the care delivery process. She also teaches patients how to turn that access to care into power with AI tools to help them hack healthcare in their favor.

Both Graces found a passion in patient advocacy after they went through misdiagnoses, where information was vital for them to find the correct path, as opposed to their initial recommendations. In today’s world, information about medical conditions, treatments, and medications are readily available online. Social media not only acts as an open-access information hub but as a space where patients and providers can connect regarding health issues and basic inquiries, and patients and caregivers can speak up about their journeys and learn from others’ experiences.

Culturally, it was uncommon for a patient to come into the office with previous information or even question what a doctor said. Nowadays, that shouldn’t be interpreted as a sign of disrespect but more as an approach where the patient and provider have shared accountability. Many patients and caregivers have become very literate about their medical issues, especially those that have navigated the rare disease world for years. With so much misinformation online, one way to help patients, who will inevitably try to look up information about their health, is to create a sheet or list with all the trusted sites and sources for them, making the content fun and understandable. Many patients don’t have access to the same information as professionals, so doing this would prevent them from entering the fake information rabbit hole. Patients and caregivers are powerful drivers in healthcare, and including them will only benefit innovation and the system as a whole.

Tune in and learn more about the power of social media for the future of healthcare!

--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/christopher-kunney/support