Socialize Your Patient Engagement Strategy

Book excerpt: Socialize Your Patient Engagement Strategy makes the case for a fundamentally new approach to healthcare communication; one that mobilizes patients, healthcare professionals and uses new media to enable gathering, sharing and communication of information to achieve patient-centricity and provide better value for both organizations (in terms of profit) and patients (in terms of better service and improved health). Letizia Affinito and John Mack focus on three priority areas for actions: Improving health literacy (e.g. web sites; targeted mass digital campaigns), Improving self-care (e.g. self-management education; self-monitoring; self-treatment), Improving patient safety (e.g. adherence to treatment regimens; equipping patients for safer self-care).