The Role of Social Networking in Healthcare

Social networking for healthcare is used by many of the different participants in the healthcare system. The motivations for using social networking differ depending on the participant. In this paper, the distinct types of social networking for health care and the user groups that are associated with them are defined. There are three distinct emerging user groups in social networking for health care. These three user groups are identified as doctor to doctor (D2D), patient to patient (P2P) and doctor to patient (D2P). Each of these distinct user groups has different objectives for using social networking for healthcare. They also have unique benefits and issues for each type of social networking for healthcare as well as having some in common.