My name is Eniliz Gerena and I am a student pharmacist at Nova Southeastern University in Ponce, PR. As part of an elective course, we are required to create a blog. I admit this is my first time blogging, but I am really excited.I expect to bring interesting discussions as well as valuable information.
I recently found an online article that briefly discusses how social media are important for health informatics, but can also be a misleading source of information. In the article, they talk about patients with specific diseases and caregivers that look for information about the diseases on the Internet. Most of the information found about treatment options was categorized as erroneous or misleading. However, when they seek contact with other people with the same disease, the information exchange has been really successful.
Health informatics is not only about looking for information of diseases and treatment options. The scope of Health Informatics Technology and Social Media goes far beyond what the majority of us would have thought. Is mostly about improving the quality of life of patients by giving them the tools to make informed decisions about their treatments. Such tools can include simple information sources, networking with other patients as well as health care professionals, and telephone applications among others. For us, healthcare professionals, it is an amazing tool to expand our knowledge and be better prepared to help the patients.
My purpose with this blog is to bring to the table information that can be useful to both, the provider and the patient, to positively impact our community. I hope this is just the beginning of a wonderful journey.
The above mentioned article can be found at: http://www.healthcare-informatics.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=news&mod=News&mid=9A02E3B96F2A415ABC72CB5F516B4C10&tier=3&nid=6AB55993D2CC4281AB5A37FDCD60A6B5
As we saw on Dr. Cain's lecture last week, it is important to maintain professional behavior all the time. As he clearly stated, we have made ourselves public figures with our FB and twitter postings. Anyone with the right skills can have access to everything we publish and even when we delete accounts some of that information is still there.
ReplyDeleteWhen I heard this, I googled myself and found information about me on Hi5, which I thought I deleted years before graduating from my bachelor's degree. It was all there just like a curse. Some of us may think it is unfair because we are not the same person anymore. But guess what... Nobody else cares!!!! It is our public image that is at risk and there could be someone out there with bad intentions...
Dr. Cain used the example of how politicians are using social networks for campaign purposes but also have personal accounts. In PR we have a great example of misconduct. Senator Roberto Arango had posted naked pictures of himself on a social network specifically for the gay community. Not only his behavior was questioned... but also his sexual orientation. He had made homophobic expressions and now was naked on an gay website!!!! Social media definitely turned its back on former Senator Arango and he left PR.
I encourage all of you to google yourselves and find out what is your true e-image. If you can do it anyone else can, including future employers as well as patients. Try to make sure the image you want them to see is the image you have. Feel free to comment and let me know what you find... See you in class!!!