How To Use Social Networking Sites For Health Care And Treatment

Social networking sites are a great boon to people for sharing views on common interests and concerns. Yes, health social networking sites having forums and support groups are invaluable for patients and caregivers who share plenty of information of various aspects like health care, prevention, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment options and disease management.

 It is true social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and StumbleUpon provide a platform for online casual conversation like offline communication during lunch, over a cup of coffee or tea or even in a party surroundings. Social networking sites are a step above blogs and Wikis, providing one-sided information only.  

However it will be best to understand the dos and don’ts of medical social networking sites to be able to get maximum benefits from them. First of all it is necessary that you take your own time to study all the features about the site to get comfortable about its working before you start using it fully.

As a second tip, it would help to be focused on what you want to learn and know from this site. If you are a caregiver of a cancer patient you may want to have touch with cancer patients, their caregivers and oncologists instead of football fans or pet owners. You can accomplish your goal better by concentrating on your main goal.   

The third tip is that time should be spent on searches regarding the diseases, patients, caregivers and professionals only. So appropriate keywords regarding symptoms, diseases and treatment should be used to get appropriate and timely help.

The fourth tip is the art of being an active participant to discussion and putting across your views and points too. This will help you to be embraced by the online networking community. Besides do have fun along with exchange of information.

However it is better to avoid some mistakes to be able to be an effective member of a social networking site of health information. Firstly avoid getting yourself involved with a large number of social networking sites; just one or two is enough. This will allow you to keep track of things, will be less distractive and avoid unnecessary confusion.

As a second tip keep away from divulging too much of personal information.  Use fictitious names or some number and alphabets.  This will help avoid injury to your image and violation to your identity and privacy.

As a third tip it is best to verify all the information before accepting it as a fact.  If someone gives you some new innovative information do ask him or her for the link on the Internet and read it fully and verify the information.

To conclude I am sure that by following these valuable tips of dos and don’ts you will be able to use health and medical social networking sites for better health care and treatment.