Social Media: Clinical Pearls

Jeffrey Benabio, MD

How does social media impact the clinician? How can we better utilize social media. Dr Benabio gives us some important insights…

• Simply put, social media, refers to digital technologies that allow people to connect and to share information.
• Over 60% of US adults read online reviews when seeking a new doctor, and 44% of those consider Yelp the most trusted review site.
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Facebook, the behemoth of social networks, has 1.35 billion monthly active users.
• 60% of social media users are likely to trust content posted by physicians online.
• 18 to 24-year-olds are twice as likely than 45 to 54-year-olds to use social media for healthcare-related discussions.
• Senior citizens are one of the fastest growing segments who use social media for their health information.
• 90% percent of adults ages 18-24 say they would trust medical information shared by others in their social networks.
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YouTube, which has over 1 billion unique visitors a month, reaches more US adults ages 18-34 than any cable network.