Leveraging user generated content (UGC) to improve quality of healthcare services and health outcomes

Abstract

User Generated Content (UGC) in healthcare has taken off in a big way after the advent of the internet and in particular, the emergence of social networks, to a point where there is no dearth of healthcare UGC at any point across the health journey. Dedicated patient forums such as Patient.info & MedHelp, social networks such as Facebook & Twitter, video streaming platforms such as YouTube, and personal messaging platforms such as WhatsApp are awash with health advice on preventive, mitigative, and curative aspects of healthcare. With suggestions of every hue pandering to and validating in the minds of its audience anecdotal, cultural, and speculative claims and assertions, counsel backed and validated by scientific evidence often takes a backseat in the dominant narratives on these platforms. Despite the burgeoning volumes of UGC data in healthcare with time, much of the data suffers from problems such as the use of inconsistent & inaccurate terminology, a preponderance of negative reviews, imputation of health developments to purported triggers that might have little or nothing to do with the developments in question, a lack of structure, and a tendency to downplay or more commonly, exaggerate developments either due to inaccurate recall or the felt emotional need to effectively draw attention to the plight of the subject in question.