Prostate cancer and social media

Abstract

The use of social media is increasing globally and is employed in a variety of ways in the prostate cancer community. In addition to their use in research, advocacy, and awareness campaigns, social media offer vast opportunities for education and networking for patients with prostate cancer and health-care professionals, and many educational resources and support networks are available to patients with prostate cancer and their caregivers. Despite the considerable potential for social media to be employed in the field of prostate cancer, concerns remain - particularly regarding the maintenance of patient confidentiality, variable information quality, and possible financial conflicts of interest. A number of professional societies have, therefore, issued guidance regarding social media use in medicine. Social media are used extensively in other cancer communities, particularly among patients with breast cancer, and both the quantity and type of information available are expected to grow in the future.

Online Professionalism—2018 Update of European Association of Urology (@Uroweb) Recommendations on the Appropriate Use of Social Media

“…SoMe allows rapid real-time interactions between stakeholders in the health care sector [37]. As such, one's personal SoMe stream can be tailored to receive personalized content from news outlets, medical journals, professional societies, and key opinion leaders.…”

Quality of Online Information Regarding Cervical Cancer

“…Patients have also been reported to discount high-quality information because of poor website design [26]. These are, therefore, important considerations for organizations seeking to disseminate high-quality information and gain patient trust.…”

“…Such design features - particularly clear layouts, ease of use, and interactivity - have been found to have positive effects on trust or credibility, whereas advertising has a negative effect [ 10 ]. Patients have also been reported to discount high-quality information because of poor website design [ 26 ]. These are, therefore, important considerations for organizations seeking to disseminate high-quality information and gain patient trust.…”

User‐generated content in the era of digital well‐being: A netnographic analysis in a healthcare marketing context

“…In Italy, melanoma is the second most common form of skin cancer (AIRC, 2018). AIRTUM Many studies have cited social media as a critical source for upto-date information on cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment (Loeb, Katz, Langford, Byrne, & Ciprut, 2018;O'Neill, 2017) or emotional and informational support for cancer patients and caregivers (Shi, Poorisat & Salmon, 2018). In particular, user credibility, content factors, and personal experience are effective strategies for designing viral information on social media (X.…”