Research

In our centre you will find several dedicated scientists who research and publish on the impact of our innovative solutions and ideas. Below one of our research fellows Tom van de Belt will guide you through one of his research topics: The extent of use of Social Media in European Hospitals

Use of Social Media by European hospitals
As a scientist involved in the implementation and evaluation of promising “Web 2.0” innovations like online communities and wikis, I learned it is crucial to listen to the users of your tool very carefully. You cannot reach your goal or find useful results without listening to the users like patients and health care professionals. For the Future, I hope we will all start seeing technology like a tool rather than a goal and we will strive for participatory healthcare. At the REshape team, I study the use of Social Media (#SoMe) by European Hospitals and try to identify the preferences and expectations patients have regarding health care and Social Media (#HCSM).

Use of Social Media in hospitals in Europe is taking off
Over the last two years we are monitoring the use of Social Media of all the hospitals in Europe. With the latest round of gathering the metrics our hunch of the former batch was confirmed that Social Media is taking off in hospitals. Based on the latest review The Netherlands remain leaders in the use of Social Media in Europe, and the overall use of it is taking off.

What impact the use of Social Media will have on healthcare is to be seen. Transparency, better information, engagement between patients, and patient with healthcare professionals is strongly influencing the delivery of healthcare in the future. An interesting research question in this matter is the use of Social Media in terms of peer-pressure related to obesitas, stop smoking or may be even for improving medicine-adherence.

To understand the use of Social Media in healthcare, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center, together with the Mayo Clinic have set up the Social Media Health Network, of which the Radboud REshape Healthcare and Innovation Center is conducting the European branch. The communication mix over the next years will be compactly shifted from traditional media alone to a cross-media mix. Similar effect have been seen in the US, where our dear colleague Ed Bennet is curating the US list and An Fuller for Canada.