Social Media for Public Health: Framework for Social Media-Based Public Health Campaigns.

The pervasiveness of social media is irrefutable, with 72% of adults reporting using at least one social media platform and an average daily usage of 2 hours. Social media has been shown to influence health-related behaviors, and it offers a powerful tool through which we can rapidly reach large segments of the population with tailored health messaging. However, despite increasing interest in using social media for dissemination of public health messaging and research exploring the dangers of misinformation on social media, the specifics of how public health practitioners can effectively use social media for health promotion are not well described. In this viewpoint, we propose a novel framework with the following 5 key principles to guide the use of social media for public health campaigns: (1) tailoring messages and targeting them to specific populations-this may include targeting messages to specific populations based on age, sex, or language spoken; interests; or geotargeting messages at state, city, or zip code level; (2) including members of the target population in message development-messages should be designed with and approved by members of the community they are designed to reach, to ensure cultural sensitivity and trust-building; (3) identifying and addressing misinformation-public health practitioners can directly address misinformation through myth-busting messages, in which false claims are highlighted and explained and accurate information reiterated; (4) leveraging information sharing-when designing messages for social media, it is crucial to consider their "shareability," and consider partnering with social media influencers who are trusted messengers among their online followers; and (5) evaluating impact by measuring real-world outcomes, for example measuring foot traffic data. Leveraging social media to deliver public health campaigns enables us to capitalize on sophisticated for-profit advertising techniques to disseminate tailored messaging directly to communities that need it most, with a precision far beyond the reaches of conventional mass media. We call for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as state and local public health agencies to continue to optimize and rigorously evaluate the use of social media for health promotion.

Digital Health Initiatives in Transforming Healthcare Delivery During Pandemic outbreak

eHealth or Digital health is the pioneer project funded by Government of India and Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Kerala, designed to provide residents of Kerala with convenient centralized healthcare system. It describes the integration of information technology and electronic communications used for different healthcare processes for people's health and their wellbeing. It has introduced since 1920s as Telemedicine and later it expanded in 2009 as e-Health due to advancement of technology. When the countries healthcare industry was facing tough times, we observed that the e-Health came to the rescue of many times during multiple waves of the pandemic. This study mainly focusses on analysing various digital health initiatives by MHFW and an attempt has been made to know what are telemedicine schemes, web portals and mobile applications and global digital health agenda used for implementation of digital health and how far it benefited in the pandemic days. Copyright © 2022, Anka Publishers. All rights reserved.

Adoption of Digital Technologies in Health Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Systematic Review of Early Scientific Literature.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic is favoring digital transitions in many industries and in society as a whole. Health care organizations have responded to the first phase of the pandemic by rapidly adopting digital solutions and advanced technology tools. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this review is to describe the digital solutions that have been reported in the early scientific literature to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on individuals and health systems. METHODS: We conducted a systematic review of early COVID-19-related literature (from January 1 to April 30, 2020) by searching MEDLINE and medRxiv with appropriate terms to find relevant literature on the use of digital technologies in response to the pandemic. We extracted study characteristics such as the paper title, journal, and publication date, and we categorized the retrieved papers by the type of technology and patient needs addressed. We built a scoring rubric by cross-classifying the patient needs with the type of technology. We also extracted information and classified each technology reported by the selected articles according to health care system target, grade of innovation, and scalability to other geographical areas. RESULTS: The search identified 269 articles, of which 124 full-text articles were assessed and included in the review after screening. Most of the selected articles addressed the use of digital technologies for diagnosis, surveillance, and prevention. We report that most of these digital solutions and innovative technologies have been proposed for the diagnosis of COVID-19. In particular, within the reviewed articles, we identified numerous suggestions on the use of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tools for the diagnosis and screening of COVID-19. Digital technologies are also useful for prevention and surveillance measures, such as contact-tracing apps and monitoring of internet searches and social media usage. Fewer scientific contributions address the use of digital technologies for lifestyle empowerment or patient engagement. CONCLUSIONS: In the field of diagnosis, digital solutions that integrate with traditional methods, such as AI-based diagnostic algorithms based both on imaging and clinical data, appear to be promising. For surveillance, digital apps have already proven their effectiveness; however, problems related to privacy and usability remain. For other patient needs, several solutions have been proposed, such as telemedicine or telehealth tools. These tools have long been available, but this historical moment may actually be favoring their definitive large-scale adoption. It is worth taking advantage of the impetus provided by the crisis; it is also important to keep track of the digital solutions currently being proposed to implement best practices and models of care in future and to adopt at least some of the solutions proposed in the scientific literature, especially in national health systems, which have proved to be particularly resistant to the digital transition in recent years.