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Social media-serves as a platform for public health awareness

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Participation in social media platform and being a recipient of tailored health messages improve the knowledge and awareness of Human papillomavirus(HPV) infection and cervical cancer.

Lyson and team have conducted a study to investigate whether participating in social media platform and receiving brief tailored messages is effective in improving the knowledge, awareness, and prevention behavior towards HPV and cervical cancer.

The study recruited 782 participants. The participants were consecutively assigned to nine-person groups on a social media platform. The baseline knowledge, awareness, and prevention behavior of the participants with regards to HPV and cervical cancer were already noted. Each participant receiveda unique random set of 20 tailored messages daily for up to five days. Post-survey was done to assess the knowledge, awareness, and prevention behavior of the participants.

Significant statistical difference was not seen with regards to knowledge and prevention behavior of the participants from the baseline to post-survey. But, a significant change in response to whether the participant has heard about HPV was increased to some extent. The study findings also revealed that most of the participants had basic knowledge, awareness, and positive behavior related to the prevention of cervical cancer from the beginning of the study.

The study concluded that social media platforms could be of great help in improving knowledge, awareness, and prevention towards HPV and cervical cancer. However, further research should be done to determine how social media improves the healthy behavior of an individual in cervical cancer.

Reference:

Lyson HC, Le GM, Zhang J, Rivadeneira N, Lyles C, Radcliffe K, Pasick RJ, Sawaya G, Sarkar U, Centola D. Social Media as a Tool to Promote HealthAwareness: Results from an Online Cervical Cancer Prevention Study. J CancerEduc. 2019 Aug;34(4):819-822.

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Corporation and startups together drive disruptive-digital-transformation in healthcare

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Digital transformation is a chance to improve the healthcare sector by lowering cost and improving quality of care.

Herrmann M and team conducted a study to determine the transformation in the healthcare sector by looking at various stakeholders, such as life sciences, technology, and start-ups. The study also evaluated the strategies used by the stakeholders in reference to theirdigital transformationinthe healthcare sector.

The study was an internet-based observational study. Using Forbes 2000 and CB insights databases, 100 leading technologies, life science, and start-up companies in the healthcare sector were identified. A systematic analysis was performed to evaluate the project for digital healthcare transformation by these companies using the criteria, such as the delivery of patient value, presence of a comprehensive and distinctive underlying business model, solutions provided, and customer needs.

The databases identified 400 projects from these corporations. Established corporations were involved in the incremental innovation of their current business models, while start-ups were engagedin exploring new market segments with notable transformations in the established business models.

The study concludes that collaboration of established corporations with start-ups provides a digital and value-based transformation in healthcare. This also keeps the investment at bay by lowering cost and improving quality of care. Additionally, the regulatory knowledge from established corporations may help the start-ups to begin digital disruption in healthcare sectors.

Reference:

Herrmann M, Boehme P, Mondritzki T, Ehlers JP, Kavadias S, Truebel H. Digital Transformation and Disruption of the Health Care Sector: Internet-Based Observational Study. J Med Internet Res 2018;20(3):e104.