Connecting for Better Health: Discovering Differences in Self-­‐Reported Preference in the Environment of Social Media in Healthcare Communications

Though working as a vital service to the community, health care companies have the samechallenges as other businesses needing to remain competitive in the marketplace. Health care providers, however, have the additional challenge of providing healthcare communications that are valuable to society. Social media presents a new environment for healthcare providers to communicate and form a relationship with their patient community. Better insights into this new environment are necessary in order to establish how patients self-report differences in preference for the different types of technology-mediated communications. Through survey methods, this study looks into the differences in self-reported claims of the patient community and their preferences in connecting with healthcare providers through social media and other forms of technology-mediated communications.