Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Marisol Mora
Mrs. Ross
Lit Comp 10
2 May 2017
Interview Transcript
Susan: Yes.
Marisol: Okay, so my topic is how how media and social media affects healthcare. So, how do
Susan: Um, I think media affects healthcare by mostly by direct advertising to the consumer, so
like pharmacologics advertising directly to the consumer and I think that allows patients to
maybe self diagnose, more than if they were just to go to a healthcare provider and let them
Marisol: Through researching, Ive noticed that too, that a lot of like the medical journals that I
have read also said that, um, with all the-- how big media has become and everything and also
social media, people have been self diagnosing themselves a lot more--
Susan: Right.
Marisol: And then that is also stopping them from going into a doctor and getting a second
opinion--
Susan: Right.
Marisol: So then its creating a lot more issues and if they really do have a disease, then its
Susan: Right.
walks into their doctor and theyre like, I need this like $200 eye drop, because I have dry
eyes, when really maybe all they need is Visine, but they watch the commercial and they make
it sound like anybody that has dry eyes needs this fancy new pharmacologic agent.
Marisol: Yeah.
Susan: Yep.
Marisol: So I read a statistic that almost one-third of the hospitals in the U.S. use social media to
better connect with their patients, do you think that that would help or hurt healthcare?
Susan: I think it could go both ways because I think if its a hospital that's a private sector and
they have a big budget, and they have a lot of money, they have the money to spend on teams of
people that can create these social media websites for them and maybe draw in more patients
whereas maybe some of the smaller hospitals, the public hospitals with no budgets, might not
have that capability so they might not get the patient, but that doesnt necessarily mean the
healthcare is better--
Marisol: Yeah.
Susan: Just because you have a better team of people that can advertise better for you.
Marisol: So, the media is often bias to one thing or another, like how you told me before they
focus a lot about on men having heart attacks and what their symptoms are but they dont focus
on women, so women die faster, so how do you think being on one side or another can lead
Susan: Easy, like so not only the heart attack issue but another big issue that the media has
completely taken off with is vaccinating sh--vaccinating your kids. But the media has painted
this whole picture that vaccines are evil, they cause autism, they cause all these mental deficits,
they cause G.I. deficits, and none of that is proven. So now there is this whole group of people
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that refuse to vaccinate their kids and diseases that kill people are coming back for no reason,
whooping cough, smallpox could come back, people dont vaccinate for that anymore. Polio,
people dont want to vaccinate for polio. So, what was the original question?
Marisol: How do you think being on one side can lead patients--
Susan: I think, um, people just tend to believe the media or social media without any real basis
and research of their own to see what is true and what is not.
Marisol: Um, so sixty percent of doctors say that social media helps treat patients better. Do you
think that physicians believe social media is an effective way to reach out to their patients
because it will maximize their efficiency in treating each patient? Why or why not?
Susan: I think that whether they believe it or not, its like the wave of the future and so they sort
Marisol: Yeah.
Susan: So I think, um, it might be a nice way to connect with their patients on an informal basis
with their patients, I dont know actually, in actual treatment if social media helps, hopefully
theyre not learning how to treat patients from something they read on Twitter or Instagram--
Marisol: Yeah.
Susan: But I think it keeps them, um, more approachable and more accessible to their patients.
Marisol: Yeah, I read this thing today and it said their was a site and I think its called Sermo, or
something like that, that like over 260,000 physicians use now and its like a big blog site so like,
some, um, physician like could have some rare case and they could like post on there about it--
Susan: Oh.
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Marisol: And say like, this is my case, these- and put like all the s-- the information, and all the
other people from like all around the U.S. and stuff like that, other physicians, can say like oh
well-- like can help them lead them on the right track--
Susan: Right.
Susan: Yes, they do it all the time with cancer patients, so they have this called an oncology
board so if somebody has more of a rare cancer or something that's not commonly seen, it's
routine for them to meet and discuss these cancer patients like with probably ten oncologists at
the hospital and as a group they determine the best treatment for the patient, not just one
Marisol: So considering how much social media already affects healthcare, how do you think it
Susan: Social media, um, I think it could be good or bad, I think it's good because it sheds light
on common issues, right so Alzheimers is in the spotlight right now and that's a big epidemic,
diabetes is sort of in the spotlight right now and that's also another big trend in the United States,
but it could also be bad because, um, theres a lot of crackpots out there that wanna put things on
the internet, like I just saw the other day that you can cure diabetes by drinking Apple Cider
Vinegar everyday, no you cant, like so if you decide to give up your diabetes meds and drink
Marisol: Yeah.
Marisol: Yeah.
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Susan: Some life threatening condition, so I think it can work both ways but I think it's up to the
consumer, I think to be more knowledgeable and not just believe any-- anything or any blog or
Marisol: Yeah.
Marisol: Yeah, I know like scrolling through my facebook page, Ive seen a lot of like home
remedy things that like, they say like, Oh, if you have this disease why dont you try doing--
Susan: Right.
Susan: Right now its coconut oil. You can cure anything with coconut oil right now, no you
Marisol: Yeah.
Susan: You have to still do what is medical researched founded and what's really works.
Marisol: Yeah, um, that's all my questions so thank you for letting me interview you.