Leveraging social media for knowledge management healthcare capability
ISSN: 1368-3047
Article publication date: 9 November 2020
Issue publication date: 24 November 2021
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to understand how healthcare social media offer nonmedical psycho-social support for pediatric oncology patients and their care community and how social media can be exploited for healthcare knowledge management.
Design/methodology/approach
Social media capabilities were identified and categorized based on psycho-social support services for pediatric oncology patients, caregivers and their community of care. Data were collected from 187 service sites representing more than 100 organizations. These broadly defined capabilities in trusted care organizations were analyzed to understand use of social media in providing psycho-social support.
Findings
Analysis revealed resource guides, stories and in-person support at clinics as the most prevalent forms of technology-guided psycho-social support. Privacy, security and information integrity rose as technical challenges for interactive social media platforms. Medical community trust is inconsistent, leading to immature adoption of critical psycho-social support as a knowledge management source. Findings further indicate the not-for-profit support sector provides robust social media capabilities compared to the healthcare sector.
Research limitations/implications
Future research may extend to maturing healthcare and not-for-profit sector services and to private sector products such as mobile applications and other technologies.
Practical implications
Survivor and caregiver quality of life depend on psycho-social support communities and services delivered via social media.
Social implications
Child protection social implications require significant attention due to sensitivity of security, privacy concerns and longevity of digital footprints for pediatric patients.
Originality/value
Research demonstrates opportunity for medical provider, healthcare organization, not-for-profit sector, patient and caregiver cooperation using social media. Data indicate healthcare technology systems leveraging social media can extend knowledge management capability beyond organization boundaries.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This paper forms part of a special section “Enhancing Healthcare Performance Through Organizational Capabilities Alignment”, guest edited by Elio Borgonovi, Americo Cicchetti and Rocco Reina.
The authors would like to thank the following individuals for their counsel: Dr Elif Kongar, Dr Michael Lohle, Dr Ruba Deeb, Dr Nasir Sheikh and Dr Harvey Hoffman.
This work was self-funded by the primary author in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the PhD in Technology Management at the University of Bridgeport.
Citation
Belitzky, E., Bach, C. and Belitzky, E. (2021), "Leveraging social media for knowledge management healthcare capability", Measuring Business Excellence, Vol. 25 No. 4, pp. 421-433. https://doi.org/10.1108/MBE-11-2019-0116
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited