The Unintended Consequences of Social Media in Healthcare: New Problems and New Solutions

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: Social media is increasingly being used in conjunction with health information technology (health IT). The objective of this paper is to identify some of the undesirable outcomes that arise from this integration and to suggest solutions to these problems.METHODOLOGY: After a discussion with experts to elicit the topics that should be included in the survey, we performed a narrative review based on recent literature and interviewed multidisciplinary experts from different areas. In each case, we identified and analyzed the unintended effects of social media in health IT.RESULTS: Each analyzed topic provided a different set of unintended consequences. Most relevant consequences inc..