At the same time, the majority of U.S. adults with a primary care physician wish they could find more comprehensive information about their doctors online.

While the online ratings and reviews category has seen strong growth in recent years across a number of categories such as consumer electronics, healthcare has lagged behind, and consumers have more or less settled for what they can find out about their doctors from health insurance websites. The end result is that many consumers don’t favor one source of information to evaluate potential doctors outside of their insurance companies’ websites.

More than two-thirds (67%) of adults wish they could find more comprehensive information about doctors online and nearly three-quarters (73%) of people under 35 feel the same way.

Other highlights from the Insider Pages study include:

*Over two-fifths (42%) of adults agree they spent more time researching the latest electronic gadget than their primary care doctor.

*Nearly half (47%) of adults with a PCP agree they chose their doctor primarily on location and not information about the physician’s expertise, malpractice record or online reviews.  

*For one quarter (25%) of adults with a PCP, word of mouth is the most important factor aside from their insurance plan when deciding if a primary care provider was right for them.

"Mayo Clinic believes individuals have the right and responsibility to advocate for their own health, and that it is our responsibility to help them use social media tools to get the best information, connect with providers and with each other, and inspire healthy choices," said Mayo Clinic president and CEO John Noseworthy, M.D.

"Through this center we intend to lead the health care community in applying these revolutionary tools to spread knowledge and encourage collaboration among providers, improving health care quality everywhere."

Features of the Center for Social Media include:

*Training for health care employees via webinars, in-person and on-site workshops and boot camps, and online curriculum.

*Consulting and coaching to help organizations align social media strategies with business goals.

*Conferences and other events to bring people together to learn from each other and share their experiences.

*Resources including toolkits, manuals, books, white papers, policies and guidelines.

"Health care has lagged behind other industries in applying social media tools," says Lee Aase, one of the leaders of the new center.

"Social media interest and activity among hospitals and health care professionals has grown remarkably, though, with the number of hospital Twitter accounts, for example, doubling in the last year."

In addition to reaching out, the center staff will work with Mayo Clinic colleagues to find new ways to apply social media tools throughout the Mayo system.

"We see immense opportunities to use internal social networking tools for collaboration among our employees to improve patient care, education, research and administration," said Aase.

"As we find new applications, we plan to conduct research into their effects so we can measure any cost savings, efficiency gains and improved effectiveness. And when we do, we’ll be sharing those findings externally to help the whole health system improve."
 

More recently, medical and legal professionals have taken another leap forward through the use of blogs. No longer is it considered tacky or unethical to promote one’s practice through Internet marketing. Websites like WebMD have become wildly popular, proving that the old ways of thinking are no longer valid.

While most blogs and websites advertising services are perfectly fine, there are most likely some that are not well thought out. An advertisement of services is fine but what if the blogger begins to offer advice, even without directly intending to do so?

There are a million fine points to medicine and, beyond the most basic remedy, it is rare to find a “one size fits all” diagnosis and potential treatment. The same can be said about the law. There are thousands—perhaps even millions—of laws governing everything from pet safety to treason, with each state and municipality putting in its own two cents. A blog that gives any sort of advice regarding either of these professions is simply asking for trouble. Regardless of how well-intentioned the blogger may be, it is inevitable that someone will take information from one of these sites, apply it to his own life, and meet with utter disaster. Then the blogger, his company, and probably the web server will become embroiled in a lawsuit. Naturally, there would be an argument about personal responsibility and the fact that there was a disclaimer on the site discouraging action without receiving professional advice. Yet disclaimers seem to have little impact on lawsuits anymore and most people admit to skipping over them when perusing a site.

In a world of instant gratification, professionals have the right idea in getting the word out about themselves and their services. One can only hope that the information disseminated is well thought out and that their malpractice insurance has been paid.

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