Social media’s growth has not been limited to financial institutes alone. Even healthcare facilities have taken great steps to adopt social media best practices. There is no denying of the fact that there are numerous benefits of compliance with social media. Lots of businesses have excelled to great heights by adopting social media. This is why healthcare organizations and ministries have finally decided not to get left behind.

When we address healthcare institutions, we must think about the two wings of healthcare. These are Pharmaceuticals and Medical Healthcare Institutions.

Compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is one of the most crucial best practices. The coming of these two on social media has raise many concerns regarding the ethics of medicine. Social media is a platform where people have access to one another’s information. As such, most renowned medical organizations have raised questions regarding sharing of sensitive information. Using social media does threaten the values and ethics of medicine. However, it seems there will be greater good from healthcare providers using social media. There can be a change in perspective to consider this a healthcare best practice.

If it is considered a best practice, then it means that patients can access healthcare via social media. Social media has become part of everyone’s lifestyle. In fact for some people social media is a need. Therefore, providing easy access to medical attention via social media will prove convenient, cost effective and time saving. The fact is that statistics of people who die waiting or medical attention each year are staggering. Using social media has offers a chance to reduce this ugly side of failures in best practices in the medical world.

In order to ensure the success of best practices there have been medical regulations e.g. Compliance 101. With introduction of social media in the medical world, new regulations have been implemented. These have been established to protect sensitive patient information while they use social media to get in touch with medical professionals.

There are applications like ZocDoc, Hello Health and TIAA-CREF for social media platforms like Facebook. These ensure that patients get sufficient privacy to discuss sensitive cases. Professionals using social media avoid offering diagnosis and treatment of severe ailments. Such cases must seek proper consultation. However, minor ailments can be treated through compliance. This has saved billions of dollars in the healthcare sector since social media was introduced in the medical world in 2011.

In the Pharmaceutical industry however, it seems there are more gray areas about what can and cannot be done on social media. The PR chief of Pfizer Company complained that The Food and Drug Administration had not provided sufficient regulations to help with compliance best practices on social media. However, two essential regulations FDA said are applicable include:

Side effects due to pharmaceuticals or medical devices must be reported to the FDA immediately.

FDA requires pharmaceuticals companies to include benefits and side effects in every advertisement.

The impact of regulation best practices on healthcare social media is that healthcare is more accessible and safe.