At first glance you might not consider how a hospital could benefit from blogging.  But in today’s ever increasingly socially (and professionally) connected world there is an intriguing connection between social media and health care forming.

According to Ed Bennett (a Maryland hospital web manager and blogger) there are almost 300 hospitals that use social media sites.  That’s only 6% of the 5000 or so hospitals in the US, but hey, trends have to start somewhere right?

So what are hospitals using social media sites for?

Dr. Allen Roberts (GruntDoc.com) used Twitter to give step-by-step instructions to another doctor who was performing an emergency procedure in Africa!

For families anxiously looking for updates during surgeries Twitter is being used to let them in on what’s going on with their loved ones.

YouTube is being used to show visual demonstrations of different medical procedures.

The #1 consequence to medical and health care issues being broadcast to the world via outlets like Twitter and YouTube is undoubtedly patient privacy rights.   YouTube filters what they can, but things will slip through the cracks from time to time.

People in the health care world ought to embrace this trend before they get left behind.  It’s not going anywhere.

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