Opportunities and risks of the social media's use in Healthcare

Social media tools are becoming an important presence in healthcare and transforming it in the process.Today many organizations, in the health sector, are faced a challenge: they must choose to allow their operators to use this new method of communication with patients and their families: the use of social media allow an instant sharing of ideas, opinions, knowledge and experiences, creating a new “space-time” dimension that would translate in a new way (additional) to "cure" the patient (Hawn, 2009). Although there are many benefits and promises from social media several risks are associated with their use. Through an empirical study conducted on a sample of European physicians and patients we’ll analyse some items (measured with Likert’s technique) that will allow us to compare what they perceive as beneficial and what they perceive as a limit. This work can be useful for managers of healthcare organization.