Healthcare in the Digital World: Analysis of Digital Media Postings

This report analyzes the impact of digital media, specifically blogging and podcasting, on health education and clinical practices within the healthcare industry. The analysis begins by examining the effectiveness of blogging in promoting health education, highlighting its potential to enhance knowledge and improve professional practices. It also addresses the reliability of information provided in health-related blogs, considering the qualifications of the authors and the potential for misinformation. The report then explores how blogging supports clinical quality by improving professional education, patient education, and care, while also cautioning against the negative effects of unverified content. Finally, the report assesses the role of podcasting in evidence-based practice, emphasizing its contribution to enhancing practical skills and the limitations associated with its use. The author provides references to support the findings and emphasizes the importance of verifying information from digital sources to ensure the quality of healthcare practices.

Running Head: HEALTHCARE IN DIGITAL WORLD
Health Care in the Digital World
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Health Care in the Digital World
Blogging in Promoting Health Education
Digital media posting has tremendous progress in communicating with the population as
well as promoting the health education. Among diverse digital media posting sources, blogging
is one of the significant sources to promote health education among professionals and the general
public. It helps them to expand knowledge and practice better professional as well as personal
life. The latest update in health education not merely advance the knowledge but also enhance
the method of researching. Dumas, Lemieux & Desroch (2017, p. 19) conducted a study to
investigate the effectiveness of evidence-informed blog to promote healthy eating. The findings
suggested that blogging helps in mapping the protocol for the development of novel knowledge
tool to promote dietary recommendations.
The literature is enriched with studies that recommend the effectiveness of blogging.
Rains and Keating (2018, p. 109) reported that health-related blogging decreased the illiteracy
and increased the health-related behaviour and purpose of life. The health education is a very
sensitive topic and needs considerable precautions in posting any information. Here the question
arises if the health professional with high qualifications is running the blog? Can professional
and general population trust on the information given in the blogs? Miller & Pole (2010, p.1517)
suggested that most females are running health-related blogs with the age of 30 and above. Also,
the females found to be highly qualified; therefore, the reliability and validity of the information
on the blog can be trusted. Hence, it can be assumed that blogging is promoting health education,
and professionals and students should get benefit from blogging.
Blogging Support the Clinical Quality
Blog posting is an effective tool to support clinical quality. The blog post improves
professional education or networking, patient education and patient care. Miller & Pole (2010, p.
1514) suggested that the majority of blogs provides reliable information. Unfortunately, in recent
surveys, it has been observed that many untrained and amateur people are also running the blog
for the financial prospect. The IT professionals, they do not have sufficient information about
health care and clinical practices, but running health-related blogs to misguide people. Nwosu,
Monnery, Reid, & Chapman (2017, p. 214) reported that Blogs, Micro-blogs and Wikis partially
misguide people and pose a potential threat to clinical quality.

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The students and untrained health care professional follow the information given on these
online resources and malpractice. Malpractices adversely affect the health quality of the people.
Furthermore, these amateur bloggers are also defaming the high-quality content blogs that
provide accurate clinical quality content. The accuracy of data cannot be assured without
verifying the blog authors. The trend of blogging is increasing day by day, and the accuracy of
data is adversely effecting as the motive of running blog revolve around money-making rather
than promoting public awareness for clinical quality. Recent researches are focusing on
providing reliable and valid knowledge for enhancing clinical best practices (Rains and Keating,
2018, p. 111). The students and professionals should be educated to avoid unauthentic blog
sources for learning purpose to avoid any harmful effect. The accuracy of data must be ensured
before implementing any process given on the blog site. In this way, the quality of clinical
practices can be increased as it is a matter of public health.
Podcasting Contribute to the Evidence-based Practice
Podcasting is crucial in evidence-based practice. Through podcasting, a series of audio
and video clips help the professionals to enhance their practical skills. Compared to other digital
media posting the podcast uses and implications are expanding significantly. The student’s
professionals and other practitioners are gaining advantages to practice better in health care
domain of life. The evidence-based practice for the effectiveness of the medicine, clinical trial,
and health care are providing valuable knowledge. The chances of errors in the prescription of
medicine, treatment modalities and another related field of health care are enhancing without any
threat. Without the evidence, based content on podcasting may decrease the ratio of mal-
practices at hospital settings. Cho, Cosimini, & Espinoza (2017, p. 229-231) conducted a
systematic review and reported the podcast is a feasible and acceptable source of learning for
professional and students. As far as the efficacy of the podcasting is a concern, no significant
contribution has been observed in the literature.
Nwosu et al., (2017, p.215) suggested the efficacy of podcasting in enhancing the best
evidence-based practices by developing content, quality metrics and content analysis. Literature
also highlights some limitation of podcasting as it is more common in English speaking
countries. Also, the cost of digital access to video and audio streaming is not accessible for
everyone (Strickland, Gray & Hill, 2012, p. 210). These limitation hinders the implication and
excessive use of podcasting for professionals to reach the evidence-based content.

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References
Cho, D., Cosimini, M., Espinoza, J. (2017). Podcasting in medical education: a review of the
literature. Korean J Med Edu, 29(4):229-239. doi: 10.3946/kjme.2017.69
Dumas, A. A., Lemieux, S., Lapointe, A., Provencher, V., Robitaille, J., Desroches, S. (2017)
Development of an Evidence-Informed Blog to Promote Healthy Eating Among Mothers:
Use of the Intervention Mapping Protocol. JMIR Res Protoc, 19;6(5):e92. doi:
10.2196/resprot.7147
Miller, E. A., & Pole, A. (2010). Diagnosis blog: checking up on health blogs in the blogosphere.
American Journal of Public Health, 100(8), 1514–1519. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2009.175125
Nwosu, A. C., Monnery, D., Reid, V. L., & Chapman, L. (2017). Use of podcast technology to
facilitate education, communication and dissemination in palliative care: the development
of the AmiPal podcast. BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care, 7(2), 212–217. doi:
10.1136/bmjspcare-2016-001140
Rains and Keating (2018). Health Blogging: An examination of the outcomes associated with
making public, written disclosures about health. Communication Research, 42(1), 107-
133. doi: 10.1177/0093650212458952
Strickland, K., Gray, C., Hill, G. (2012). The use of podcasts to enhance research-teaching
linkages in undergraduate nursing students. Nurse Educ Pract, 12(4):210-4. doi:
10.1016/j.nepr.2012.01.006