Running head: THE IMPACTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON INTERNAL COMMUNICATION
WITHIN THE MEDICAL PROFESSION
The Impacts of Social Media on Internal Communication within the Medical Profession
Alexandra Flood, Jaye Giglio, Chelsea Dekoff, and Oliver Najnigier
Marist College
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THE IMPACTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON INTERNAL COMMUNICATION WITHIN THE
MEDICAL PROFESSION
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Abstract
The following paper uncovers the impacts that social media has had on the medical field
throughout time and analyzes if it will be vital to the progression of physician-to-physician
communication tactics. The paper provides a brief introduction to the study and the research
questions that were used and presents a problem statement and brief literature review that
analyzes social media and Internet in the workplace, in healthcare, and mobile
applications. Additionally, the paper presents the rationale, methodology, and results of the
study. Lastly, the paper contains a discussion and analysis of the obtained findings and presents
several limitations that were experienced during the research process. The research study
collected a total of 109 respondents and utilized two separate surveys targeting Marist College
School of Science students and physicians at two local hospitals. While the younger generation
utilizes social media more often on a daily basis for personal use, both the students and physician
population did not feel that social media would improve communication in the medical
profession. Both populations, however, did feel that a mobile application would be very useful,
particularly one that provides a medical databases, live global medical news, and customized
news alerts based on application activity.
Keywords: Social Media, Internet, Internal Communication, Healthcare, Workplace
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Table of Contents
Introduction ......................................................................................................................................4
Problem Statement ...........................................................................................................................5
Literature Review.............................................................................................................................6
Social Media Usage in the Workplace .................................................................................6
Mobile Applications.............................................................................................................9
Social Media and Medicine ...............................................................................................10
The Internet and Medicine .................................................................................................11
Purpose and Rationale....................................................................................................................15
Methodology ..................................................................................................................................16
Results ............................................................................................................................................16
Student Results...................................................................................................................16
Demographics ........................................................................................................16
Social Media ..........................................................................................................17
Mobile Applications...............................................................................................18
Physician Results ...............................................................................................................18
Demographics ........................................................................................................18
Social Media ..........................................................................................................18
Mobile Applications...............................................................................................19
Discussion ......................................................................................................................................19
Limitations .....................................................................................................................................22
Conclusion .....................................................................................................................................22
References ......................................................................................................................................24
Appendices .....................................................................................................................................27
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Introduction
It is without question that social media has become a dominating force within today’s
society; but we often overlook how it could shape and mold industries like psychology,
medicine, and education. It appears that this force has become inescapable, and some may even
say it has helped improve these seemingly straightforward professions. According to an article
by Pamela Lewis Dolan on amednews.com, “‘The rise in social media has been so meteoric,’
said Dr. Bosslet, an internist at Indiana University Health. (2011, para. 5). However, while it
may appear that medical professionals are “embracing social media…87% of physicians make
personal use of social media, but a lesser amount, [only] 67%, use it professionally” (2011, para.
6). While it is made evident through this article that social media for physician-to-patient
communication is—while not necessarily utilized regularly—existent and active, very little is
mentioned about a platform for medical personnel to communicate among each other
internally. While there is a strong emphasis on physician-to-patient communication, we feel that
physician-to-physician communication should be equally valued among the community.
As a team, our intent is to conduct an original research study that looks briefly at the
overall development of social media and how medical professionals specifically have utilized it
within the profession. Furthermore, we are interested in making predictions for the future, such
as roughly formatting an application designed to be used for consulting, sharing medical
advances/developments, giving advice, or partaking in surgeries online. Currently, doctors are
communicating over apps such as Twitter, WhatsApp, and Facebook, but we are interested in
exploring the development of an application that is exclusive to those among the profession, or at
the very least testing whether or not it would be productive and helpful. Therefore, we proposed
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the following research questions to help us more accurately determine the progression of social
media and the role it has played within the medical field:

How has social media played a role in the development of the medical field, and how
will it continue to impact medical professionals and the community?

What kind of improvements upon existing social media outlets and/or features of a
new application would be beneficial to professionals of the medical field?
Literature Review
Social Media Usage in the Workplace
Since the start of the digital age, social media has immeasurably impacted our generation
and is therefore a prevalent topic for communications research. Not only is social media utilized
daily for socialization but has been incorporated into the organizational culture of virtually every
industry and has therefore become interconnected with every aspect of human life. According to
Zhang et. al, “The time spent on social media in America increased rapidly from 88 billion
minutes in 2011 to 121 billion minutes in 2012…In this case, social media is attracting more and
more attention in management study, computer science study, and real business.” (Zhang, Wang,
Ordonez de Pablos, Tang, and Yan, 2015, para. 1). With that being said, it is without question
that the use of social media and the Internet is transforming the workplace.
Anandarajan, Teo, and Simmers explain that this technology enables “unprecedented
access to unlimited information on a twenty-four-hour, seven-day-a-week basis,” and although
the physicality of the workplace has not altered drastically, “with the growth of Internet usage,
the atmosphere of the workplace and of the way we work has been irrevocably altered…We are
no longer bound to our physical location” (2006, p. 3). Furthermore, the digitalization of the
workplace allows for increased flexibility and gives employees the ability to communicate
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without geographic or time constraints (p. 4). According to Al-Hamami and Baqutayan, social
media networking has a key role in organizational culture and has replaced face-to-face
meetings. Additionally, websites like Twitter and LinkedIn can be used professionally to
network, fill positions, and seek new employees (2013, p. 2868). Furthermore, there are several
benefits to using social media in the workplace, including “allowing faster pace and accessibility
of information, providing more effective ways of sharing knowledge, keeping…employees
motivated and satisfied with their work,” and eliminating time-restrictions in order to increase
the interaction between “broadly circulated people” (p. 2869).
However, despite the revolutionary impacts social media and technology has made, it has
also created a distracting environment and organizations “face challenges of declining
productivity, damaging viruses, security leaks, potential for legal actions, and overloaded
networks (Andanarajan, Teo, and Simmers, 2006, p. 3). According to Junger’s study, a reporter
stated the following: “‘I’ve found long-lost friends and made a couple new ones,’ an Associated
Press reporter observed of social media like Myspace and Facebook in 2009, ‘But I’ve also never
felt more distracted, and I don’t like that” (Junger, 2013, p. 620). According to Pike, in the few
years that social media has developed as a cultural phenomenon, “business organizations in
particular have developed a substantial love/hate relationship with social media. There is no
doubt that social media was quickly recognized, then adopted and exploited as a marketing tool
by business organizations” (2014, para. 2).
While social media in the workplace exhibits both positive and negative impacts on
organizations, more regulations and policies are being implemented in order to maximize this
medium without it being merely a distraction. According to Junger, “As the popularity of social
media continues to grow, it is likely that more rules will follow. Speaking to both the private and
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public sector, President Obama has argued that ‘American consumers can't wait longer for clear
rules of the road that ensure their personal information is safe online.’” (2013, p.
620). According to Pike, employers have begun to introduce social media policies in employee
handbooks in order to outline what is considered acceptable use “when posting on social media
about the employer.” Pike also notes that employees do have legal protection for “their afterhours social media activities. Privacy laws protect against active monitoring of employees in the
absence of a specific purpose, such as investigating a theft allegation or a disability claim”
(2014, para. 6). With that being said, although the integration of social media into the workplace
has become difficult to monitor, employers and even the government have begun implementing
protocols and policies to allow social media to function among organizations as a tool that will
improve performance, instead of hindering it.
Most companies that operate social media platforms aim at centralizing one particular
online activity, and their brand name would be noticed for that specific mediated
activity. “Brands such as Twitter, YouTube, MSN, and Skype have become synonyms for
microblogging, video sharing, chatting, and video conferencing” (Dijck, 2013, p. 7). Millions of
application program interfaces (APIs) and services have been developed in contingence with
social media platforms. Google operates in contingence with Google Docs, Google+, Gmail,
YouTube, and so on. Since Google+ is a social networking site, Google is in turn partially a
social media platform.
Social networking sites are increasingly becoming efficient marketing tools for many
companies. Advertising and marketing are two fields that are intertwined with social networking
sites. “Companies are increasingly reaching out to their consumers via social network
sites. SNS marketing campaigns are extensively used for promoting brands, products and
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services” (Fournier and Avery, 2011, p. 193). It’s clear that social media is still on the rise,
showing no signs of plateauing any time soon. For example, Facebook, which started in 2004, is
now worth $337 billion dollars. That is more Walmart’s market value of $235, which opened in
1962.
Social media has developed an unprecedented amount since its humble beginning in
1997. It is incredible how these social media platforms such as Facebook have, in just a short
period of time, attained a higher market value than significantly older companies. We are seeing
a much higher number of social media users on mobile devices than ever before. Although
social media users are predominantly millennials and should remain a primary target, older
demographics such as baby boomers are increasingly utilizing these technologies as well, and
should not be ignored.
Methodology
For this study, our methodology consisted of two separate surveys that contained
questions we carefully formulated based on our individual research report findings. All
participants were required to confirm that they were 18 years or older in age and agreed to an
informed consent. We chose to make our survey anonymous and did not ask participants to
reveal their identities because we felt this would yield a higher response rate. The first survey
was conducted via paper/pencil and specifically targeted Marist College students affiliated with
the School of Science who plan to enter the medical field. The second survey was conducted via
both paper/pencil and SurveyMonkey.com and targeted medical professionals of the MidHudson
Regional Hospital and Putnam Hospital Center, respectively. Despite our differing survey
methods, all survey data was entered into Survey Monkey for collective analysis.
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The Marist College School of Science students were recruited by contacting professors
via email, and our team visited the classrooms of those who permitted and welcomed the
study. Medical professions of both the MidHudson Regional Hospital and Putnam Hospital
Center were recruited by corresponding with Angela Fulton, Director of Marketing and
Corporate Communications, and John Santangelo, Physician Liaison. The students and
physicians were asked to answer 30 and 26 questions in total, respectively, and both surveys
were estimated to take approximately 3-5 minutes to complete. In total, we received 109
respondents, 70 of which were students and 39 of which were physicians.
Results
Student Results
Demographics.

47 respondents were female, 21 were male (Item 13, Appendix A).

48 were Seniors, 11 Juniors, 9 Sophomores, and 0 Freshmen (Item 14, Appendix A)

The mean age of student respondents was 21.79.

90% of the respondents were both currently enrolled in the Marist School of Sciences
and planning to enter the medical field (Item 1, Appendix A).
Social media. When asked which social media the respondents use most in his or her
personal life, the majority of respondents (67.19%) chose Facebook. Following this was
Instagram (64.06%), Snapchat (54.69%), and then Twitter (21.88%). Only 12.50% of the
respondents chose LinkedIn as his or her preferred social media outlet (Item 2, Appendix A). We
asked which social media accounts would be most beneficial for a hospital or medical center to
utilize. 22 of the respondents chose Facebook and 22 of the respondents chose LinkedIn and 18
respondents felt Twitter would be a beneficial account, making it a close third (Item 3, Appendix
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A). 91.18% of respondents were not familiar with hospitals using social media platforms for
internal communication purposes, but 50% were familiar with hospitals utilizing internal
databases to communicate (Item 4 & Item 5 , Appendix A). We utilized a 5-point Likert Scale to
rate respondents’ level of agreement with the following statements: “I feel it is important to
maintain strong physician to physician communication” and “Social media is not an effective
method of communication for the medical field.” The weighted average responses were 4.50 and
3.15, respectively (Item 6 & Item 7, Appendix A). While 92.65% of respondents stated that with
agree or strongly agree that it is important to maintain strong physician to physician
communication, only 30.88% chose agree or strongly agree that social media is an effective way
to implement internal communication (Item 7 & Item 8, Appendix). 66.18% of student
respondents said it would be beneficial to receive immediate feedback on medical-related
questions through social media (i.e. forum-based communication, instant messaging, etc.), and
63.24% said they would want to receive live updates and/or alerts from medical conferences
within his or her hospital or future workplace (Item 9 & Item 10, Appendix A).
Mobile applications. We then asked two questions regarding a mobile application; one
asking if the respondent felt it would be beneficial and the other about the preferred features. 67.
65% felt that an app would be beneficial in enhancing physician-to-physician communication in
the future (Item 11, Appendix A). The top three application features respondents felt would be
most beneficial included: a medical database (hospital and doctor profiles, etc.), a live feed of
medical news globally, and a customized news alerts based on one’s individual application
activity (recent searches, most viewed articles, etc.) (Item 12, Appendix A).
Physician Results
Demographics.
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
28 respondents were male and 4 were female (Item 14, Appendix B).

The mean age for physician respondents was 52.23 years.

97.44% of respondents stated that they were active professionals in the medical field,
and only one participant was not (Item 1, Appendix B).
Social media. When asked which social media respondents used most in his or her
personal life, 32.43% chose Facebook, 27.03% chose LinkedIn, and 29.73% do not use social
media (Item 2, Appendix B). We asked which social media accounts the respondents’ resident
hospital utilized, 44.12% were aware that it utilizes Facebook and the same amount of
respondents were not sure if his or her hospital utilized any type of social media at all (Item 3,
Appendix B). 93.75% said that his or her resident hospitals do not use social media for internal
communication purposes to his or her knowledge (Item 4, Appendix B). 50% of respondents said
his or her hospitals have an internal communication database, but 40.63% of respondents were
unsure (Item 5, Appendix B). We utilized a 5-point Likert Scale to rate respondents’ level of
agreement with the following statements: “I am likely to follow a hospital's social media
account”, “I Feel it is important to maintain physician-physician communication”, “I am not
likely to participate in internal communication via social media”, and “I am comfortable sharing
my personal findings or discoveries via social media”. The weighted average responses were
2.41, 4.56, 3.69, and 2.06, respectively, out of 5 (Item 6, Item 7, Item 8, & Item 9, Appendix
B). While 100% of respondents agreed that it is important to maintain physician-to-physician
communication, 56.25% agreed that they are not likely to participate in internal communication
via social media (Item 7 & Item 8, Appendix B). 53.13% said they would want to receive live
updates and/or alerts from medical conferences within his or her hospital and 50% said they
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would want to receive live updates and/or alerts from medical conferences taking place outside
of his or her resident hospital (Item 10 & Item 11, Appendix B).
Mobile applications. We then asked two questions regarding the integration of mobile
applications within the community. One question asked if respondents felt it would be beneficial
and the other question involved prospective application features. 56.25% felt that a mobile
application would be beneficial in enhancing physician-to-physician communication in the future
(Item 12, Appendix B). The top three application features deemed most beneficial by the
respondents included: customized news alerts based on your app activity (recent searches, most
viewed articles, etc.), a live feed of medical news globally, and a medical database (hospital and
doctor profiles, etc.) (Item 13, Appendix B).
Discussion
We found the majority of surveyed students preferred Facebook as their preferred social
media outlet versus Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and LinkedIn. We asked ourselves why is
Facebook the favorite and what features or attributes associated with Facebook make it the most
appealing? It is because Facebook isn’t solely a social media outlet for interpersonal
communication. The act of sharing information such as news articles has become principal for
Facebook users. Sharing and consuming news and other pertinent information is one way
Facebook user remain more active than the competition. Facebook is a sort of one-stop-shop for
communicating and consuming information. However, we realized that much of “news”
information Facebook users consume isn’t always accurate and credible. So, this led us to the
idea of developing an application that is designed for sharing newsworthy information that
pertains to users’ specialized interests.
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It’s apparent through our data that hospitals are predominantly unaware or absent in
utilizing social media platforms for internal communication purposes. The vast majority of
survey respondents also agreed that it’s crucial to maintain strong physician-to-physician
communication. Initially with those findings we began to think a social media application for
physicians to communicate with one another inside and outside the workplace would be
beneficial. However, most respondents rejected the idea of participating in internal
communication via social media. Per medical professionals responses and our own internal
discussions we deduced this was correlated to the fact that most respondents felt uncomfortable
revealing their professional findings and research over social media. There were some ethical
concerns with sharing this kind of information due to strict patient confidentiality practices.
What it came down to is medical professionals believe there are ethical and legal restrictions that
discredit this idea of physician-to-physician communication over social media. So, we began
wondering if this sort of development would even be plausible.
We discovered that half of the physician respondents said they answered no or didn’t
know to the question, does your respective hospital have an internal communication databases?
That gave us our second hint towards the idea of an information-based app. The first being was
the realization of Facebook’s success as a kind of news source. We asked survey participants
what features they would prefer to see in an information-based application. The top result was to
have customized news alerts based on app activity. So with this result we thought that a feature
that utilized prescriptive personalization would be ideal. PP can be broken down into two
components: explicit and implicit. Explicit personalization is where a user’s profile information
influences what content they will see, while implicit personalization is when content is presented
to the user based on their search behavior.
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In contingence with that element would be the ability to search for and consume global
medical news. This ties in with the second most chosen feature for application; a live feed on
medical news globally. This feature would work hand in hand with the customized news alerts.
It would allow users to receive customized content that would pop up on their live feed, which
would either be based on their chosen preferences, prescriptive personalization, or both. The
third most popular app feature was medical databases, which would contain information such as
hospital and doctor profiles. This would also include hospital ratings, comments, technologies,
as well as contact information for hospitals and even medical professionals.
These three features point towards an information centered app that allows people
interested in or established in the medical world to be actively engaged in global medical news,
stories, and research as well as information pertaining to hospitals and their respective medical
professionals. We feel that an application of this sort would be the both more lucrative and
credible versus one that is more focused on a social media approach. We currently reside in a
world where the difference between real credible, accurate news and completely subjective,
opinionated pieces are not so easily distinguishable. Media outlets like Facebook and Buzzfeed
are some of the most popular example of this, but this proposed application has merit to be a
reliable and applicable source of information for people interested in, entering in or established
within the medical field.
Limitations
In retrospect, there were several limitations that we faced as a team throughout the entire
research process. Due to the heavy protocols implemented by the hospitals we contacted, the
extensive communicative process to receive approval set our research schedule back immensely.
Additionally, despite this monumental process, we yielded a low response rate from physicians
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and medical personnel due to their busy work schedules. Similarly, we experienced a lacking
response rate from Marist College professors willing to participate in the study. Furthermore,
our student sample was restricted to the Marist College School of Science, which constitutes for
a small representation of prospective medical students; we lacked the time and resources to
conduct a study that could reach participants on a national scale.
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