Balancing professional distance and human closeness

Social media requires a simple and engaging message. But a medical or psychological condition can be anything but simple. How can patients and healthcare professionals navigate these new digital waters?

Webinar: Professional distance and human closeness — Martin Engebretsen is researching how health workers can combine good health information with popularity on social media.

You create a personality that people get to know over time. This builds trust with followers. I believe it is an effective form of health information and advice. Of course, it cannot replace any of the established forms of health care.

You are not always a patient. With digital home follow-up, you will hopefully be at home more often than in the hospital. This way you can also be more yourself. But how do you get answers when you have questions about your condition and the specialist at the hospital or in the municipality is not available? You start looking online of course.

In the healthcare system, you are concerned with professionalism, distance and confidentiality. This does not always fit as well on social media, where closeness, personality and humor are expected. There can also be a mismatch if you simplify complex medical and psychological conditions too much. How can the common man know that the information he sees on social media is correct and based on research? How can healthcare personnel take advantage of the new communication methods to spread good information in an understandable and credible way?

Presentation by professor Martin Engebretsen at the University of Agder.

Recording

You can download the podcast to your mobile on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Podbean. Search for ‘Norwegian Centre for E-health Research’.