Mora 1

Marisol Mora

Mrs. Ross

Lit Comp 10

2 May 2017

Interview Transcript

Marisol: Do I have your permission to record this?

Susan: Yes.

Marisol: Okay, so my topic is how how media and social media affects healthcare. So, how do

you think media affects healthcare?

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

decide what their issue is and what medication would be best.

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

cau-- it's harder to treat it because it is farther along--

Susan: Right.

Marisol: Than it was.

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

patients down the wrong path.

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: Oh, right.

Marisol: Down the wrong path.

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

of have to do it if they want to keep up with the times.

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.

Marisol: Do you think thats effective?

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

oncologists point of view.

Marisol: So considering how much social media already affects healthcare, how do you think it

will change the medical field in the future?

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

Apple Cider Vinegar, youre going to wind up in the hospital--

Marisol: Yeah.

Susan: In diabetic ketoacidosis or you know--

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

any article that comes across the internet--

Marisol: Yeah.

Susan: Because a lot of them are bullcrap.

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.

Marisol: this and it will cure it.

Susan: Right now its coconut oil. You can cure anything with coconut oil right now, no you

cant. I mean it's nice but--

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.