Social media in public health care: Impact domain propositions

This paper investigates the impacts of social media use in Danish public health care with respect to capabilities, interactions, orientations, and value distribution. Taking an exploratory approach, the paper draws on an array of quantitative and qualitative data, and puts forward four propositions: social media transform the access to health-related information for patients and general practitioners, the uptake of social media can be a cost driver rather than a cost saver, social media provide empowerment to patients, and the uptake of social media is hindered by legal and privacy concerns. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.