By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
  • Health
    • Mental Health
    Health
    Healthcare organizations are operating on slimmer profit margins than ever. One report in August showed that they are even lower than the beginning of the…
    Show More
    Top News
    physical health
    5 Ways Playing Games Can Improve Neural and Physical Health
    September 9, 2022
    Reasons For Hair Loss and Its Treatment
    Reasons For Hair Loss and Its Treatment
    February 16, 2022
    healthcare organization
    5 Actionable Strategies For Healthcare Organizations
    August 15, 2022
    Latest News
    6 Easy Healthcare Ways to Sit Less and Move More Every Day
    September 10, 2025
    7 Most Common Healthcare Accreditation Programs: Which Should You Use?
    August 20, 2025
    Hospital Pest Control and the Fight Against Superbugs
    August 20, 2025
    Hygiene Beyond The Clinic: Attention To Overlooked Non-Clinical Spaces
    August 13, 2025
  • Policy and Law
    • Global Healthcare
    • Medical Ethics
    Policy and Law
    Get the latest updates about Insurance policies and Laws in the Healthcare industry for different geographical locations.
    Show More
    Top News
    5 Basic Types Of Eye Tests That Are Part Of An Eye Exam
    September 24, 2018
    Knowledge About Malpractice Lawsuits Can Give You Some Peace | Healthcare Career Resources
    Knowledge About Malpractice Lawsuits Can Give You Some Peace
    September 18, 2020
    How Your Job Can Impact Your Health
    December 11, 2018
    Latest News
    Healthcare at a Crossroads: Why Leadership Matters More Than Ever
    September 9, 2025
    How Social Security Disability Shapes Access to Care and Everyday Health
    August 22, 2025
    How a DUI Lawyer Can Help When Your Future Health Feels Uncertain
    August 22, 2025
    How One Fall Can Lead to a Long Road of Medical Complications
    August 22, 2025
  • Medical Innovations
  • News
  • Wellness
  • Tech
Search
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Diagnosing an Illness With Facebook
Share
Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
Font ResizerAa
Search
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Health Works Collective > eHealth > Social Media > Diagnosing an Illness With Facebook
DiagnosticsSocial Media

Diagnosing an Illness With Facebook

DavidEWilliams
DavidEWilliams
Share
5 Min Read
SHARE

“How Facebook Saved My Son’s Life” -it’s hard to think of a more dramatic headline than that one from Slate. Last week a mother posted an article about her experience. In brief, her son got sick, son’s doctor suspected strep, son got worse, mom posted a photo of her son on Facebook, three dozen people commented on it, and one –a film actress and former neighbor– called to say,

“How Facebook Saved My Son’s Life” -it’s hard to think of a more dramatic headline than that one from Slate. Last week a mother posted an article about her experience. In brief, her son got sick, son’s doctor suspected strep, son got worse, mom posted a photo of her son on Facebook, three dozen people commented on it, and one –a film actress and former neighbor– called to say,

“I hope you’ll excuse me for butting in,” she said, “But you have to get to the hospital. Now.” Her son Max had had the exact same symptoms, and was hospitalized for Kawasaki disease, a rare and sometimes fatal auto-immune disorder that attacks the coronary arteries surrounding the heart. “The longer you wait,” she said, “the worse the damage.”

Other comments by doctor friends and relatives persuaded mom to zip son to the hospital. Eventually Kawaski disease was diagnosed and son began treatment. Son is doing better now, but still recovering and may not get back to 100 percent. Mom has become a big fan of Facebook based on this episode and subsequent success using the service as a support network.

More Read

Thumb Up X-ray photo
Top Five Blogs of 2015 on Image Capture Devices from Everything Rad
Making Health Addictive: Reinforce Social Connections (Part IV)
Patient Engagement with Facebook
Small Practice Medical Website Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
HIT Bloggers to Follow on Twitter

This is a nice story with a fairly happy ending but it makes me nervous to think this is somehow what a parent needs to do to keep their kid safe. What about all those Facebook users out there who don’t have the kinds of networks that this mom did? (It reminded me when I went on a tour of FBI headquarters in the 1970s. The tour guide showed us pictures of the 10 most wanted and said tour group members had identified several suspects over the years. My father told me that if this was the best tool the FBI had to find fugitives we were in worse shape than he thought.)

I asked SimulConsult CEO and pediatric neurologist Michael Segal MD PhD for his opinion about this phenomenon.

It is hit-or-miss doing social network diagnosis with laypeople, but of course this story is a triumph of signal over noise.  Social network diagnosis works really well, though, with doctors involved, whose experience is orders of magnitude larger than that of non-clinician parents.  This is the sort of things doctors do on rounds, what we do on doctor listservs, and the sort of thing we make computable in SimulConsult (we don’t currently cover this group of diseases but are gearing up to do so).

As a pediatric resident I remember Kawasaki disease being one of those diseases that was stressed as one that could get much worse if not dealt with promptly. However, if a disease is rare and the message is not reinforced often, one can forget the details.   For this reason it is crucial to build in systems that remember the details.

The prior probability for suspecting strep goes a long way to explain how the doctors got sidetracked, but playing the odds and focusing on the horse instead of the zebra often works.  SimulConsult has a blended approach that tries to get the best of both these approaches.  It looks harder for disease in which intervention makes a huge difference, so even if such a disease is not ranked as #1, SimulConsult might focus suggested workup more on this disease than on diseases for which rapid intervention is not so important.

I’m hopeful stories like these will hasten physician use of systematic, computerized approaches to speed up correct diagnosis of rare disorders.

 


TAGGED:crowd-sourcingfacebooksocial media
Share This Article
Facebook Copy Link Print
Share

Stay Connected

1.5kFollowersLike
4.5kFollowersFollow
2.8kFollowersPin
136kSubscribersSubscribe

Latest News

a woman walking on the hallway
6 Easy Healthcare Ways to Sit Less and Move More Every Day
Health
September 9, 2025
Clinical Expertise
Healthcare at a Crossroads: Why Leadership Matters More Than Ever
Global Healthcare
September 9, 2025
travel nurse in north carolina
Balancing Speed and Scope: Choosing the Nursing Degree That Fits Your Goals
Nursing
September 1, 2025
intimacy
How to Keep Intimacy Comfortable as You Age
Relationship and Lifestyle Senior Care
September 1, 2025

You Might also Like

An ambulance
BusinesseHealthSocial Media

How the Uber-ization of Healthcare is Going to Put the Industry in Gear

March 3, 2016

New Study Mimics the Effects of Alzheimer’s Disease to Increase Public Awareness

February 9, 2014

The Benefits of Having an E-newsletter for Your Hospital

February 22, 2012
thumbs up
Policy & LawSocial Media

FDA Warning Letter: Don’t Make Unsubstantiated Claims, Even on Facebook

March 7, 2013
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!
Follow US
© 2008-2025 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?