The global digitalization of the 21st century has drastically changed how we obtain health information. While an appointment with a physician used to be required to get expert information or diagnoses, the internet has made access to medical information simpler than ever. Today, accessing health related information sits behind only email and general search engine use as the main reasons people go online [1].
While the internet and social media can be powerful tools for enhancing healthcare access and improving physician-patient communication, they have some critical downfalls.
The interactive nature of online and social media environments, where any user can upload content, means that medical misinformation thrives on conventional platforms. For example, research has shown that in studies related to smoking products and drugs, up to 87% of online posts were found to be misinformative [2]. Perpetuating misinformation further is the fact that, while industry experts can be highly accessible online, distinguishing between experts and “experts” can be difficult. Conventional online methods are lacking in the ability to properly verify and authenticate both sources and the information they provide.
We live in an age of big data, with incomprehensible quantities of information on every conceivable topic available online. Facebook alone experiences 55,000 new posts every second [3]. This greatly complicates the location of medical information online, due to its coexistence with such levels of arbitrary content. The inherent popularity and scale of pop culture content on traditional social media further accelerates the drowning of medical content. Reputable healthcare experts find themselves competing with the world's most prominent influencers, artists, and athletes for space on people’s feeds and their subsequent attention.
Tell™ provides a significantly more efficient model for patients to access information from healthcare experts, while simultaneously providing a safe, dedicated medium for healthcare experts to connect with the general public and patients alike. Tell™ tackles misinformation by granting posting privileges only to verified healthcare providers, and subsequently moderating their content using an AI aided Independent Oversight Board of clinicians. Online sources on the matter agree with the power of integrating healthcare and social media, but also strongly acknowledge the need for a correctly implemented content strategy in terms of proper education, community engagement, patient-centricity and HIPAA compliance [4] [5]. The Tell™ platform aims to provide just this, creating a social healthcare platform which combines the ergonomics of traditional social media, with the information and credibility of medical journals and major online sources.
To find out more, visit https://www.tell.health/
