Analysis of Healthcare Social Networking sites and applicability in Macedonian e-society

The purpose of this paper is to research the opportunities that arise from the usage of Social Networking technologies in healthcare, both for patients, physicians and the service providers, the business models behind and the possibilities for introducing the models in Macedonia. For this study, data available through the Internet has been used as the primary source of information and reference. A new Healthcare Social Networking (abbreviated to HSN, in the paper) model has been introduced based on analysis of several existing HSN cases. Finally, an overview of the state of Social media usage in Macedonia and the level of healthcare online presence is given.