Introduction
Amidst the evolution of online transactions, consumer health has not been left behind. As such, the Internet plays an intermediatory role in public health for information sharing among people who are not only interested in purchasing drugs but also inquiring about their curative value and other pharmaceutical information. Ben Said et al. (2020) highlight that recent studies show over 135 and 71 million people in 22 countries within the Arab region use the Internet and social networks, respectively. This has made communication and access to the news online easy. Further, in Saudi Arabia, network penetration is at 89.39 percent, while 23 million people use social media (Ben Said et al., 2020). Therefore, this has made information easily accessible through various platforms and programs. In addition, the introduction of Medicine 2.0 or Health 2.0, a collaborated and improved communication strategy among individuals through social networking, has enhanced the availability of information (van de Belt et al., 2010, p. 1). This paper highlights the concept of health, social approaches to networking, its benefits, and approaches to consumer-based care through the Internet.
Literature Review
Social media has become an integral part of human coexistence. Almozainy (2017) asserts that the World Bank estimates over 4.77 billion people around the world use mobile phones while half of the population have smartphones. This has not only made communication from one region to the other faster but also, information accessibility has become cheap and easy. Also, although North America leads in internet accessibility and penetration, Saudi Arabia is among the leading countries in social networking (Almozainy, 2017). On the one hand, the majority of Saudis live in urban centers; on the other hand, the country’s Crown Prince has a stake in Twitter, thus, making it popular among the people. Further, they lead in the use of Instagram and Snapchat when compared to other countries in the region. Also, Saudis spent an average of 3 hours and 2 minutes daily on the Internet (Ben Said et al., 2020). As a result, the online platform has become their major mode of engagement.
Various programs, including Web 2.0, have become the main interaction and social connections methods used by businesses, state departments, and individuals. While its origin cannot be pinned to a particular year, it began during the civil unrest during the Arab Spring in 2010, which led to the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia (Smidi & Shahin, 2017). This saw the growth and change in the prioritization of websites by citizens in other Arab states, including Saudi Arabia. Conversely, although there are few studies on people’s attitudes toward media and its impacts, the Kingdom of Saudi has experienced drastic changes due to the government’s modernization strategy realized from the oil wealth (Askool, 2013). In addition, there is an exponential growth of the young population in Saudi Arabia. This is the thriving force in public health information consumption through online platforms such as Health 2.0 (Althiabi, 2017). Further, the influence of the unrest in the aforementioned initiated awareness among the citizens. Also, it led to the realization of the power of social media (Smidi & Shahin, 2017). The combination of these factors forms the background to the increase in the usage of various consumer health platforms.
Discussions
The Current Concept of Med 2.0 or Health 2.0
Although there is no formal agreement on the terms, there are various definitions of Web 2.0 and its increasing usage, making it an integral part of human coexistence. Introduced in 2004, Web 2.0 was seen as a technological and socio-economic trend that is the backbone of an online generation that is mature and open to participation. Besides, it can be interchanged with Med 2.0 or Health 2.0 (van de Belt et al., 2010). It was an improved version of Web 1.0, a unidirectional first internet generation, whereas the new type allowed the addition or removal of content, thereby leading to interaction. In addition, mobile prevalence studies carried out in 2015, revealed that 72 percent of adults in the United States owned smartphones, while in 2012, they were 63%. Further, sixty-two percent of the owners googled information on health, an increase from the 53% that inquired for the same information in 2012. (Kao & Liebovitz, 2017). Through the use of mHealth, a self-contained app that is health-related and designed to improve the patient’s status through different designs, consultations have been improved.
This has made the app popular due to its ease and adaptive nature, according to the consumer. Also, it is bound to continue increasing since smartphone penetration around the world has been estimated to reach 6.1 billion people, representing 80 percent of the total global population. Further, in 2015 more than three billion health-related software were downloaded, and there are over 45,000 program developers (Kao & Liebovitz, 2017). The mHealth applications provide continuous high-quality and relevant information to many health consumers with set procedures to be followed. As a result, they have led to enormous impacts such as the management of chronic diseases, patients’ education, mental health, and the empowerment of the people. However, there is no formal process for vetting these applications, thus, the accuracy of health information they contain may compromise the safety and health of users.
For instance, internet usage in the Netherlands is more popular than other media forums such as newspapers, radio, and television. Further, their usage is ever in the increase as patients use Bing and Google as search engines to look for health information. Also, they express and air their issues through online platforms. Besides, medical professionals engage with their clients through websites known as eHealth (van de Belt et al., 2010). On the contrary, Medicine 2.0/Health 2.0 denotes the participation of citizens in their health issues using the communication channels provided by technologies. This leads to patients’ empowerment by creating awareness of their choices through access to health information.
In Saudi Arabia, there are many sources of information that influence the population’s perception or views on health and their medical knowledge. While the latest statistics reveal that more than half of the world’s population has access to the Internet, 64 percent of the residents are connected to various online platforms, and the trend is ever-increasing (Alduraywish et al., 2020). Further, the majority of the youths use search engines for health information. Besides, early studies reveal that they employ other sources, such as the radio, physicians, parents, television, and pharmacists, to seek information. However, through the use of WhatsApp, information is circulated among the people losing its relevance, thus affecting the patient’s decisions and behavior regarding health.
Social Practices, Networking and Health Information Transactions in Saudi Arabia
Different countries around the world have developed different provisions in the health sector aimed at reducing the cost of services for both consumers and providers. In the United States, the government, through the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010, introduced procedures that standardized business operations (CMS.gov, n.d.). These are called administration simplifications which aim at reducing costs in providing services by family physicians. Also, health care transaction involves the trading of details between individuals in the process of carrying out financial activities (CMS.gov, n.d.). As such, when the exchange is carried out electronically and in an effective manner, it improves the accuracy and quality of information, and its efficiency and leads to a reduction of costs incurred by the health system.
Endowed with an ever-increasing population, the Saudi Arabia government is at the forefront of the implementation of health technology. On the one hand, this is seen as a major goal toward meeting the emerging care demands of 33.4 million people, while on the other hand, it enhances the provision of free health services to the citizens (Alsahafi et al., 2020). In addition, both private and public providers offer cheap and easily accessible care services. However, as a result of inadequate facilities, vital information records are shared among providers, and this leads to duplication that ends up in the wastage of resources. To counter this, the state is in the process of developing an ePHR with standardized medical terminologies according to the communication standards, ensuring that its electronic communications are accurate across its systems.
Further, many people in Saudi Arabia are becoming literate in the usage of the e-Health concept. This is the ability of an individual to find, seek and decipher health information available in electronic media and apply the gotten information in solving health-related problems (Alsahafi et al., 2020). There is an increasing trend in internet usage, especially in the exploitation of social media to seek perspectives and information on consumer healthcare in the governmental integrated ePHR system implementation. On the contrary, few research and studies did provide little information on the adoption and implementation of the above technologies in the local context (Alsahafi et al., 2020). Therefore, this remains a challenge to understanding, especially consumer health information.
Benefits of Social Networking and Consumer Health Information
Consumers using the Internet as a source of personal information are on the increase over the years. According to the 2010 survey of Health Tracking Households, 50 percent of Americans sought personal information online. Further, in 2012, 72% of users in the US acknowledged using online platforms. Also, in 2014 the digital literacy of Europeans revealed that more than 75 percent of the people considered and 65% used various health websites to inquire about some health issues (Zhao & Zhang, 2017). For example, a report compiled in Scotland in 2015 showed that 68.4 percent of the patients had utilized the Internet. While the consumption of health information applies to those with conditions, it also occurs to relatives, friends, and families of those who are suffering from various ailments. Online health searches have benefits such as emotional and social support for consumers (Zhao & Zhang, 2017). Therefore, a patient develops a positive attitude and becomes healthy, obeys given recommendations, and engages the doctor for more information.
The use of emails and blogs by doctors and patients where there is constant communication between the two; revealing the symptoms and giving the required prescriptions leads to curbing the health problem early. The introduction of social media platforms such as instant messaging, blogs, wikis, online forums, and other video-sharing platforms has led to the overhaul of the global communication process (McWay & Smith, 2014). These have not only benefitted the health consumers but also all the people across the communication channel. Also, the sites encourage sharing of information directly, thus enhancing participation, interaction, and community engagement (Dalmer, 2017). Further, the introduction of the digital; era of Medicine 2.0 or Web 2.0 has made doctors, and health workers interact with patients who are far in remote areas. While explaining the effectiveness of the Internet in reducing mortality rates among pregnant women in Indonesia, Dafroyati and Widyastuti (2020), asserts that the provision of online health education on pregnancy saved lives. The use of WhatsApp group interventions prepared them and reduced the chances of mortalities.
Saudi Arabia, there is ever-increasing popularity on Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat and is the leading country in the Middle East. Although these apps are used for leisure, health care professionals agree that there are many benefits to the usage of social media for information. Consequently, research was carried out in the eastern part of the country to ascertain views on the use of such platforms by communities in seeking medical assistance. The result revealed that 80% of the medics expounded that the use of the Internet in the provision of services improved their knowledge, created public awareness, and brought about patient education (Alshakhs & Alanzi, 2018). However, there are limitations that the report highlighted, such as breach of confidentiality and privacy of the patient, health status exposure to the public, and legal and ethical risks.
Facilitation of Progressive Change Towards Consumer-Centric Delivery
While there are many studies carried out on the use of online engines to gather health information by various groups, the paucity of such research is rampant in Saudi Arabia. Conversely, the affordability and availability of the Internet in the country like in other states across the globe, have not only enabled consumers to share but also, create and access content online. As a result, social media platform is viewed as Web technology and application content created and operated by the end-user (Benetoli et al., 2017). Further, it is divided into different sharing versions such as Wikipedia, blogs, and YouTube. Besides, the other version comprises Facebook and LinkedIn, which are known as relationship-developing platforms since they are primarily networking sites where members create profiles and start connecting.
Conversely, while most medical practitioners and hospitals have relied on technology for many decades, the consumer-based approach leads to the interface between the patients and IT where clients use the online platforms (Dimick, 2011). Also, it gives the user an opportunity to engage effectively and get fast feedback from doctors. It enables medics to holistically evaluate a client and provide a diagnosis with the concerted efforts of other practitioners. On the one hand, the participatory and interactive characteristic of social media has enabled customers to provide health-related information to others, while on the other hand, it has offered access to the same. As such, symptoms and disease complications, examinations, and prognosis have become the major topics discussed by health consumers online.
Further, it increases the relevance of networking sites and fosters the spirit of virtual unity among different groups. Therefore, it is paramount to exploit the network penetration in Saudi Arabia with more than 23 million subscribers to create socio-support groups and online communities (Ben Said et al., 2020; Benetoli et al., 2017). This will enhance the consumer-centric health care delivery approach. In addition, the initial trials by Sustainable Medical Applications and Reusable Technologies (SMART) by Harvard to build a common platform where health care apps operated on different online systems did not materialize. Other similar ventures such as Microsoft health vault and google health failed too. However, Apple company has shown great promise in healthcare research by acquiring Gliimpse: a PHR start-up, and there is a likelihood of creating a single consumer health-centered app (Kao & Liebovitz, 2017). Therefore, these are geared towards the promotion of consumer-centric medical care.
Conclusion
In summation, consumer health and social networking information in Saudi Arabia remains inadequate. While there are vibrant youth and an urban population whose mobile connectivity is ever increasing, the utilization of Web 2.0 or Health 2.0 in seeking information is not popular. However, the popularity of social media platforms like Snapchat and Twitter in the country highlights the likelihood of a change in trends and embracing the use of new technology in health-related transactions.
Recommendations
To promote consumer health and social media networking in Saudi Arabia, the government should roll out an online public health program platform accessible to all residents seeking information and booking appointments with medical personnel. In addition, the state should pioneer in the provision of medical regulations using the digital platform by ensuring that important personnel records are safely kept. Further, through the provisions of free health to the citizens, it should ensure that both private and public services providers are vetted and have social media sites that are accessible all the time, where relevant literature is continuously updated.
More research is to be carried out on the importance of consumer health and how to enhance networking and service delivery between the health ministry, the medical agencies and the people in Saudi Arabia. Also, the government encourages the youth to engage more in online medical information and provisions by the state through sharing by using Twitter and Snapchat, encouraging their peers to explore the new platforms created.
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