Social Media for Patient Recruitment

I previously posted about Patient Recruitment & EHR where I talked about some of the intricacies of patient recruitment and use of EHR for clinical study patient recruitment. While I’m certain that EHR will be a major player in the patient recruitment of the future, I saw a tweet today that made a great case for social media being the go to platform for patient recruitment today.

Here’s the tweet from @JeffBrittonMD:

Facebook accounted for 70% of patients recruited for Epilepsy Contraception study; far greater reach than other ad methods #AANAM

— Jeffrey Britton (@JeffBrittonMD) April 24, 2012

70% of patients were recruited on Facebook. That number hit me when I saw it. Although, after thinking about it a little bit it makes a lot of sense. The real key to Facebook recruitment is that they know a lot of information about you which advertisers can use to target their ads. So, it makes perfect sense for Facebook to work for patient recruitment.

I think we’ll see other social media channels prove beneficial to patient recruitment as well. Although, it’s still early for many of the other platforms that I think will prove most valuable. Keep an eye on Twitter to start. Also, don’t underestimate the power of mobile apps and even a physician’s social media presence.