Title: Electronic social media in the healthcare industry

Authors: Peter D. DeVries

Addresses: Department of Finance, Accounting, and CIS, University of Houston – Downtown, Houston, TX 77002, USA

Abstract: Recent trends in e-finance have shown that mobile technology is growing, and with this growth come new opportunities for deploying new services for customers. The purpose of this study is to explore how the healthcare industry can be more innovative in its use of social media. The literature was surveyed and it was found that the doctor/patient relationship was not being well supported. A social media platform geared towards healthcare is proposed as a solution. The creation of a social media platform geared towards healthcare would facilitate advances in the healthcare industry, as it has in other industries, and would provide the same opportunities for revenue generation that are enjoyed by those industries.

Keywords: social media; social networks; doctor-patient relationship; healthcare technology; HIPPA; Web 2.0; electronic finance; e-finance; revenue generation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEF.2012.046593

International Journal of Electronic Finance, 2012 Vol.6 No.1, pp.49 - 61

Published online: 01 May 2012 *

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