Toward a maturity model for the application of social media in healthcare. The health 2.0 roadmap
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-02-2018-0038 |
| Pages | 404-425 |
| Published date | 10 June 2019 |
| Date | 10 June 2019 |
| Author | Mona Jami Pour,Seyed Mohammadbagher Jafari |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Bibliometrics,Databases,Information & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet,Records management & preservation,Document management |
Toward a maturity model for the
application of social media
in healthcare
The health 2.0 roadmap
Mona Jami Pour
Department of Business, Hazrat-e Ma’soumeh University (HMU), Qom, Iran, and
Seyed Mohammadbagher Jafari
School of Management and Accounting, College of Farabi,
University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Purpose –The advent of new technologies and change of patients’behavioral patterns have triggered the
provision of medicalservices through social media.Although the intersectionbetween social media and health
has receivedconsiderable research attention,there is little researchon how health institutionsimplement social
media strategy; thusa roadmap is required to navigate these technological initiatives. So, the purpose of this
paper is to overcome this challenge by developing the Health 2.0 maturity model in the healthcare field.
Design/methodology/approach –To obtain this aim, the mixed method was applied in this research.
In the first step, qualitative research method was used. In this step, along with comprehensive literature
review, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the healthcare professionals to find the practices and
capabilities of Health 2.0. In the second step, the proposed key dimensions (KD) were assessed and prioritized
based on the views of the healthcare professionals using the quantitative survey method. Finally, by
considering the architecture of Health 2.0 maturity model, the KDs were assigned to maturity levels based on
their priority of implementation using a focus group.
Findings –The proposed maturity model is composed of six KDs and five maturity levels based on the
Capability Maturity Model Integration architecture. The KDs, as well as their implementation order and
weights in the proposed maturity model are presented as a roadmap for applying Health 2.0 effectively.
Practical implications –Employing the Health 2.0 maturity model enables health institutions to assess the
current social media capabilities and guide them to select appropriate strategies for progress. Due to the
descriptive nature of the proposed model, it allows managers to conduct process-based assessments
regarding health 2.0 implementation.
Originality/value –Health 2.0 has been a recurring theme on the agenda of healthcare institutions, but no
sensitive tool is available to measure its growth processes. This paper explores the much ignored but
critically important subject of Health 2.0 maturity model and its implementation roadmap. The main
contribution of this paper is to introduce an integrated roadmap containing the most important capabilities of
Health 2.0. The proposed model is both descriptive and prescriptive in nature, and has a significant theoretical
contribution to healthcare studies. This paper provides a mechanism to benchmark Health 2.0 efforts and to
develop a progressive strategy that would improve its activities.
Keywords Social media, Web 2.0, Capability Maturity Model (CMM), Health 2.0
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Nowadays, the internet has become one of the main means of obtaining information for
people to aid them in decision making in different aspects of their daily lives, including
health matters (Ahadzadeh et al., 2018). According to Groselj (2014), in the USA four out of
five internet users seek health information online. The advent of Web 2.0 technology has
opened up opportunities for business value creation, which has led to the popularity of
social media (Li et al., 2018).
In recent years, online health social websites have grown substantially ( Jiang and
Yang, 2017). Social media has changed the way people search for and share health-related
information and demand health services (Li and Wang, 2017). Spending more and more time
Online Information Review
Vol. 43 No. 3, 2019
pp. 404-425
© Emerald PublishingLimited
1468-4527
DOI 10.1108/OIR-02-2018-0038
Received 1 February 2018
Revised 10 May 2018
26 July 2018
Accepted 14 August 2018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1468-4527.htm
404
OIR
43,3
on social media by users, and the increasing use of tablets and smartphones will increase the
demand for mobile healthcare-related information (Pentescu et al., 2015). Nowadays, patients
are increasingly accessing online health information and have become more participatory in
their interactions with healthcare professionals (Benetoli et al., 2017). The healthcare system
is moving toward more patient-oriented models where the internet and social media
tools will play a significant role (McHattie et al., 2014; Househ and Kushniruk, 2014).
Once new Web 2.0 technologies are used in the healthcare, the concepts of “Health 2.0”and
“Medicine 2.0”appear (Van De Belt et al., 2010).
Social media provide tools and platforms for user collaborations, content generation
by users and sharing the related data (Van De Belt et al., 2010; Merolli et al., 2013;
Ngai et al., 2015). Using such media enables the organizations to provide quick answers to
the patients’questions, and makes it possible for them to follow the related discussions.
Finally, it can save time for patients and improve the quality of medical services
(Li et al., 2018). Professionals can join online communities to get informed about newest
medicinal articles, listen to experts, follow the medical advancements, and consult
colleagues regarding the patients’issues. Nowadays, some physicians use social media to
communicate directly with the patients to monitor their health (Ventola, 2014). A study
conducted by Li et al. (2018) showed that 49 percent of the participants had received
answers to their questions from their doctors within a few hours, and 60 percent of the
doctors said that social media would improve the quality of healthcare delivered to
patients (Li et al., 2018). Another study by Boudry (2015) on 1,347 articles revealed that the
number of articles related to the application of Web 2.0 in the medical field has been
increasing from 2002 to 2012, with the average annual growth rate of 106.3 percent.
However, despite the advent and use of social network channels in other fields, it has not
been much widely used in the healthcare field (Pentescu et al., 2015).
Social media has turned into a hot topic in Iran in recent years and found a large number
of users based on Techrasa’s statistics (Techrasa, 2016). According to Techrasa (2016), more
than 53 percent of Iranian people over 18 years old are using at least one social media
platform. So it can be concluded that about 28.5m people are active users of a social media
platform in Iran. In another report by the Internet World Stat (2016), Iran with a population
over 82.8m was ranked first in the Middle East by having around 56.7m internet users and
17.2m Facebook users. Considering the high influence of social media in Iran, their
potentials can be used to handle health issues, which account for a part of the problems in
society. Improving healthcare and reducing medical costs are among the top priorities of the
government to enhance the living standards of citizens, which can be approached by
adopting models of the countries that have successfully used social media in healthcare.
However, despite the significant advantages of social media, there still remain some risks
and challenges associated with using social media in healthcare (Li and Wang, 2017). Such
challenges may include poor quality of information, damage to professional image, breaches
of patient privacy, violation of patient-healthcare professional boundary, licensing and legal
issues (Ventola, 2014), unknown impacts on patient-healthcare professional relationship
(Benetoli et al., 2017), weaker social ties comparing to traditional social media sites
( Jiang and Yang, 2017), user acceptance and sharing health information (McGowan et al.,
2012; Li et al., 2018). Studies show that research on the use of social media in healthcare has
not been as much developed as its real application (Li et al., 2018). On the other hand, its
implementation has faced various problems (Househ and Kushniruk, 2014; Lim, 2016).
Hence, further research is necessary in order to better understand social media’s impact on
healthcare (Benetoli et al., 2017). These challenges of Health 2.0 domain need more academic
attempts and studies to clarify the required capabilities for successful adoption of Health 2.0
and the path toward migration. A review of the related literature shows that there are few
substantive theoretical accounts, which consider the multiple dimensions of Health 2.0
405
Application of
social media in
healthcare
To continue reading
Request your trial