According to the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), more and more new communication technology is being used to provide cancer care. Web-based tools, wearable technology, and smartphones let many people engage with each other and share information.
Medical institutions and individual health care professionals are also developing ways to use this technology to improve the quality of medical care.
Dr.Mina Sedrak's research focuses on studying the mechanisms by which social media and mobile technology can enhance individual and population health behaviors and outcomes in cancer care.
Selected Podcast
How Social Media Can Enhance Outcomes In Cancer
Featured Speaker:
Learn more about Mina S. Sedrak, MD
Mina S. Sedrak, MD
Mina S. Sedrak, MD., MS., is an assistant professor specializing in breast oncology in the Department of Medical Oncology & Therapeutics Research at City of Hope.Learn more about Mina S. Sedrak, MD
Transcription:
How Social Media Can Enhance Outcomes In Cancer
Melanie Cole (Host): According to the American Society of Clinical Oncology, more and more new communication technology is being used to provide cancer care. Web-based tools, wearable technology, and smart phones let lots of cancer patients engage with each other and share information and medical institutions and individual health care professionals are also developing ways to use this technology to improve the quality of the medical care they provide. My guest today is Dr. Mina Sedrak. He's an assistant professor specializing in breast oncology in the Department of Medical Oncology and Therapeutics Research at City of Hope. Welcome to the show, Dr. Sedrak. So, tell us a little bit about some of these technologies we're seeing today in cancer care, and, as an oncologist, how are you seeing the future of using these kinds of technology to aid in cancer care?
Dr. Mina Sedrak (Guest): Well, Melanie, thank you for having me. As you can tell, there is a rapidly new communication landscape that is changing among how we communicate. There's a shift from traditional to participative communication; a type of communication that enables users to interact, create, write, and exchange information with each other. Social networking has shot up in the past decade. Sixty-five percent of adults now use social networking sites. That's a nearly ten-fold jump in the past decade and this new communication landscape where social media provides this tapestry of information. It captures our daily interactions and exposures and, not only does it capture them, but we have now these communication information being measured, recorded, and memorialized. I believe there's an opportunity for researchers to systematically witness public communication about health and, specifically, about cancer care.
Melanie: So, how do you foresee doctors and patients using these social media and technologies to engage with each other?
Dr. Sedrak: So, I think that we first need to understand the existing cancer communication on social media sites in order to understand how it's going to work. What are the uses and limits of these new modes of communication as they apply to cancer research? So, one of my areas of interest is cancer clinical trials. Cancer clinical trials are essential to translate scientific discoveries into new treatments, but only three to four percent of adult cancer patients participate annually in therapeutic clinical trials. And, we know that when we educate the public on the condition being studied, that has been linked with improvement in patient recruitment to clinical trials. As numerous organizations and campaigns are starting to use social media, such as Twitter, for example, as a platform for health promotion and education, despite this apparent increase in use, we don't know how these types of communication share information about a subject as complex as cancer clinical trials. So, in my mind, the first steps are to understand the existing cancer communications on social media sites, such as Twitter, in order to better utilize these sites to deliver cancer information.
Melanie: So, Dr. Sedrak, how can they also--they might present some potential risks to patients regarding maybe the distribution of poor quality information. I mean, we see a lot of these forums for cancer patients, maybe a doctor could have damage to his professional image--what do you see--even breaches in patient privacy--where do you see some of the challenges associated with using this new technology in oncology?
Dr. Sedrak: Yes. I think these are very important issues that are potential challenges in this area. I think that there are issues around professionalism for physician behavior; there are ethical issues in the kind of medical or clinical information that is shared online, and I think that what we have to do is understand a little bit about the current cancer ecosystem to understand how these issues play out and then instead of being afraid of these issues, I think we need to address them head on because the reality is that more and more people are using social media to communicate with each other. It's going to become a part of how our world, if it hasn't already, become a part of how we are you know, interacting with our world. I know that a lot of people my age and younger, the millennials, use social media to gather information about current events. They learn about the news from their blogs and their Twitter feeds and their Facebook pages. So, there is a lot of that that currently exists out there. And yes, there are challenges in understanding how these data can be linked to medical or clinical information in terms of both ethical and potentially legal challenges. I think that, like I said before, the first step is to understand the ecosystem to see is there even signal in the noise and then to figure out what are those challenges and how can we best address them in order to think about what is the benefit of this type of communication in patient care.
Melanie: Dr. Sedrak, people are talking about wearables. They were just on the top of the list of the American College of Sports Medicine's fitness trends, so tell us a little bit about how you think wearables might improve cancer care for the patients. How can they be using some of this technology that's not necessarily social media, but technology to help improve just our general overall health?
Dr. Sedrak: Yes. I think wearables have a potential role of adding a sort of a third dimension to the kind of understanding of patient illness that could inform physicians and scientists about what happens outside of that 20-minute visit that I have with my patient. When I see a patient in the clinic, I see the woman and I talk to her and I try to gather as much information from her about how she's dealing with her cancer and I gather labs and imaging to understand how the cancer is reacting to the treatment that we are providing her. But, those are only very few, limited data and time points. Imagine if I can gather the number of steps that she walks to understand her functional performance status, or her heart rate and blood pressure, and her sugars, outside of those 20 minutes, how much more of that information could be valuable in understanding her disease, her response to treatment, and her overall care as I provide it? How much more improved can I provide that care for her with that kind of information? I think, again, this is an area that's been untapped and this is where I think there is some potential opportunity to do research in understanding how this type of technology can, in fact, if it will, aid that provider’s understanding of a patient's disease experience beyond the limited time points that we have with our patients in the clinic?
Melanie: Well, I agree with you, and I think these can offer even more avenues of patient support and engagement with their own medical care, and that seems to be a great route to self-health advocacy. So, just in the last few minutes here, Dr. Sedrak, give us your best advice about where you see the future going for the use of new technology in cancer care and what are doing at City of Hope?
Dr. Sedrak: I think that the future of technology is definitely expanding. I think that, you know, the way we are learning about technology and, you know, social media communication as it relates to cancer care, is really is in its infancy. Its value and direct application remain to be seen, and I think that this warrants further exploration and that's what our work here at City of Hope is trying to do--to understand how the current technology as exists, can be better utilized to deliver cancer care, both from the individual and the population level. We hope that these insights, in turn, would allow us to design targeted interventions that use technology, digital health, mobile health, social media to promote better cancer care for our patients, both at City of Hope, and across the country.
Melanie: Thank you so much. It's really great and such interesting information, Dr. Sedrak. Thank you for being with us today. You're listening to City of Hope Radio and for more information, you can go to www.cityofhope.org. That's www.cityofhope.org. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening.
How Social Media Can Enhance Outcomes In Cancer
Melanie Cole (Host): According to the American Society of Clinical Oncology, more and more new communication technology is being used to provide cancer care. Web-based tools, wearable technology, and smart phones let lots of cancer patients engage with each other and share information and medical institutions and individual health care professionals are also developing ways to use this technology to improve the quality of the medical care they provide. My guest today is Dr. Mina Sedrak. He's an assistant professor specializing in breast oncology in the Department of Medical Oncology and Therapeutics Research at City of Hope. Welcome to the show, Dr. Sedrak. So, tell us a little bit about some of these technologies we're seeing today in cancer care, and, as an oncologist, how are you seeing the future of using these kinds of technology to aid in cancer care?
Dr. Mina Sedrak (Guest): Well, Melanie, thank you for having me. As you can tell, there is a rapidly new communication landscape that is changing among how we communicate. There's a shift from traditional to participative communication; a type of communication that enables users to interact, create, write, and exchange information with each other. Social networking has shot up in the past decade. Sixty-five percent of adults now use social networking sites. That's a nearly ten-fold jump in the past decade and this new communication landscape where social media provides this tapestry of information. It captures our daily interactions and exposures and, not only does it capture them, but we have now these communication information being measured, recorded, and memorialized. I believe there's an opportunity for researchers to systematically witness public communication about health and, specifically, about cancer care.
Melanie: So, how do you foresee doctors and patients using these social media and technologies to engage with each other?
Dr. Sedrak: So, I think that we first need to understand the existing cancer communication on social media sites in order to understand how it's going to work. What are the uses and limits of these new modes of communication as they apply to cancer research? So, one of my areas of interest is cancer clinical trials. Cancer clinical trials are essential to translate scientific discoveries into new treatments, but only three to four percent of adult cancer patients participate annually in therapeutic clinical trials. And, we know that when we educate the public on the condition being studied, that has been linked with improvement in patient recruitment to clinical trials. As numerous organizations and campaigns are starting to use social media, such as Twitter, for example, as a platform for health promotion and education, despite this apparent increase in use, we don't know how these types of communication share information about a subject as complex as cancer clinical trials. So, in my mind, the first steps are to understand the existing cancer communications on social media sites, such as Twitter, in order to better utilize these sites to deliver cancer information.
Melanie: So, Dr. Sedrak, how can they also--they might present some potential risks to patients regarding maybe the distribution of poor quality information. I mean, we see a lot of these forums for cancer patients, maybe a doctor could have damage to his professional image--what do you see--even breaches in patient privacy--where do you see some of the challenges associated with using this new technology in oncology?
Dr. Sedrak: Yes. I think these are very important issues that are potential challenges in this area. I think that there are issues around professionalism for physician behavior; there are ethical issues in the kind of medical or clinical information that is shared online, and I think that what we have to do is understand a little bit about the current cancer ecosystem to understand how these issues play out and then instead of being afraid of these issues, I think we need to address them head on because the reality is that more and more people are using social media to communicate with each other. It's going to become a part of how our world, if it hasn't already, become a part of how we are you know, interacting with our world. I know that a lot of people my age and younger, the millennials, use social media to gather information about current events. They learn about the news from their blogs and their Twitter feeds and their Facebook pages. So, there is a lot of that that currently exists out there. And yes, there are challenges in understanding how these data can be linked to medical or clinical information in terms of both ethical and potentially legal challenges. I think that, like I said before, the first step is to understand the ecosystem to see is there even signal in the noise and then to figure out what are those challenges and how can we best address them in order to think about what is the benefit of this type of communication in patient care.
Melanie: Dr. Sedrak, people are talking about wearables. They were just on the top of the list of the American College of Sports Medicine's fitness trends, so tell us a little bit about how you think wearables might improve cancer care for the patients. How can they be using some of this technology that's not necessarily social media, but technology to help improve just our general overall health?
Dr. Sedrak: Yes. I think wearables have a potential role of adding a sort of a third dimension to the kind of understanding of patient illness that could inform physicians and scientists about what happens outside of that 20-minute visit that I have with my patient. When I see a patient in the clinic, I see the woman and I talk to her and I try to gather as much information from her about how she's dealing with her cancer and I gather labs and imaging to understand how the cancer is reacting to the treatment that we are providing her. But, those are only very few, limited data and time points. Imagine if I can gather the number of steps that she walks to understand her functional performance status, or her heart rate and blood pressure, and her sugars, outside of those 20 minutes, how much more of that information could be valuable in understanding her disease, her response to treatment, and her overall care as I provide it? How much more improved can I provide that care for her with that kind of information? I think, again, this is an area that's been untapped and this is where I think there is some potential opportunity to do research in understanding how this type of technology can, in fact, if it will, aid that provider’s understanding of a patient's disease experience beyond the limited time points that we have with our patients in the clinic?
Melanie: Well, I agree with you, and I think these can offer even more avenues of patient support and engagement with their own medical care, and that seems to be a great route to self-health advocacy. So, just in the last few minutes here, Dr. Sedrak, give us your best advice about where you see the future going for the use of new technology in cancer care and what are doing at City of Hope?
Dr. Sedrak: I think that the future of technology is definitely expanding. I think that, you know, the way we are learning about technology and, you know, social media communication as it relates to cancer care, is really is in its infancy. Its value and direct application remain to be seen, and I think that this warrants further exploration and that's what our work here at City of Hope is trying to do--to understand how the current technology as exists, can be better utilized to deliver cancer care, both from the individual and the population level. We hope that these insights, in turn, would allow us to design targeted interventions that use technology, digital health, mobile health, social media to promote better cancer care for our patients, both at City of Hope, and across the country.
Melanie: Thank you so much. It's really great and such interesting information, Dr. Sedrak. Thank you for being with us today. You're listening to City of Hope Radio and for more information, you can go to www.cityofhope.org. That's www.cityofhope.org. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening.