10 More Eye-Opening Social Media Statistics for Physicians

According to information collected by Publicis Healthware International, the most popular activity among physicians who engage in social media is following what colleagues are sharing and discussing. The second most popular activity is CME.

About 1 out of 4 U.S. physicians use social media daily to seek out medical information, according to a recent study in the Journal of Medical Internet Research. About 1 out of 7 actually contribute content daily to a social media website. More than half stick to physician-only websites.

In terms of usefulness, 281 of 485 (57.9%) of respondents stated that social media enabled them to care for patients more effectively, and 291 of 485 (60.0%) stated it improved the quality of patient care they delivered. The main factors influencing a physician’s usage of social media to share medical knowledge with other physicians were perceived ease of use and usefulness.

According to the Mayo Clinic, 1584 health-related organizations, "actively use social networking sites and maintain fully-sponsored accounts." The most popular channel for hospitals is Facebook.

Social media users are most likely to trust posts by doctors over any other groups when it comes to health information. They are more likely to trust doctors than they are nurses, patient advocacy organizations, hospitals, and eight other health information sources.

As physicians increase their use of social media, they use it in ways that benefit their patients as well as their practices. Physicians are recognizing the opportunities they have to engage with a variety of audiences: patients, prospective patients, other doctors, health care thought leaders, etc. A June 2014 study done by MedData Group shows that 54% of physicians use social media for work purposes.

Facebook is the most commonly used social media platform by physicians up to the age of 60 years, according to " 2014 Work/Life Profiles of Today's U.S. Physician" released by AMA Insurance. The survey includes responses from 4,950 U.S. physicians.

Doctors, nurses, pharmacists and healthcare consultants from the United States make up most of the healthcare professionals who use Twitter, according to research by Creation Healthcare, a London-based research and training consultancy. U.S.

According to AMN Healthcare's most recent survey on social media use, clinicians are reporting an increased use of social media for job searching. The number doubled from 21% in 2010 to 42% in 2013. The 2011 survey reported that 31% of healthcare professionals used social media for professional networking.

Social media is a tool that groups have adopted to help educate, market, and promote causes or topics to a broad audience. Researchers examined trends in social media use at pulmonary and critical care conferences and found substantial growth and adoption of Twitter.