Main description:

The number of patients using social media and the number of applications and solutions used by medical professionals online have been sky-rocketing in the past few years, therefore the rational behind creating a well-designed, clear and tight handbook of practical examples and case studies with simple pieces of suggestions about different social media platforms is evident. While the number of e-patients is rising, the number of web-savvy doctors who can meet the expectations of these new generations of patients is not, this huge gap can only be closed by providing medical professionals with easily implementable, useful and primarily practical pieces of advice and suggestions about how they should use these tools or at least what they should know about these, so then when an e-patient has an internet-related question, they will know how to respond properly. As all medical professionals regardless of their medical specialties will meet e-patients, this issue with growing importance will affect every medical professionals which means there is a huge need for such a easily understandable handbook.

Contents:

Social media is transforming medicine and healthcare.- Using medical search engines with a special focus on Google.- Being up-to-date in medicine.- Community sites Facebook, Google+ and medical social networks.- The World of E-Patients.- Establishing a medical blog.- The role of Twitter and microblogging in medicine.- Collaboration online.- Wikipedia and Medical Wikis.- Organizing medical events in virtual environments.- Medical smartphone and tablet applications.- Use of social media by hospitals and medical practices.- Medical video and podcasting.- Creating presentations and slideshows.- E-mails and privacy concerns.- Social Bookmarking.- Conclusions.