People with rare diseases are being recruited by the Mayo Clinic by way of social media. Dr. Sharonne Hayes is using social media to find survivors of spontaneous coronary artery dissection, or SCAD. Doctors have yet to find out what causes SCAD, but hope to change that with the help of social media.
In less than a week, the SCAD study found 18 patients. Mayo Clinic is hoping to recruit a large enough patient group to cut the cost of normal recruitment methods and find more demographically diverse patient groups much quicker.
It is good to see that we are finding ways to use social media for the good of society, other than to communicate with friends and promote businesses.
http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2011/08/31/Social-media-Recruiting-tool-for-studies/UPI-63791314848933/
I agree. It's unfortunate that more medical researchers have not taken advantage of this platform. I would think that this would be a great avenue for other medical resources such as a blood bank, especially when rare blood types are needed. Thanks for your commentary. - Michele
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