PASAY CITY, Metro Manila- Dr. Willie Ong, a resident doctor of ABS-CBN’s Salamat Dok and a columnist of the Philippine Star, delivered the keynote address for the Healthcare Social Media Summit 2016 co-organized by the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD) and the #HealthXPh on 21 April 2016 at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC).

On his keynote address, Dr. Willie Ong shared his experiences in writing newspaper articles and books, producing videos, making health advisories, and using social media as platform for promotion and dissemination of health information.

 According to Dr. Ong, he aspires to save fifty thousand lives through his advocacy on making medicines affordable, sending advisories timely and effective, and providing basic laboratory test free for the poor.

In pushing for such an advocacy, he advised the summit participants to always find their purpose or mission, to think outside the box, to keep their momentum, to follow God’s laws, and to think big and never give up.

Dr. Ong also mentioned that his social media accounts such as his Facebook page has reached a total of one million likes already. His articles on health which he also posts on his page were also shared by more than 30,000 Facebook users.

As a celebrity doctor himself, he shared tips on how to increase Facebook likes and reach such as making the content of page original, unique and interesting, text short, and photos catchy. He also emphasized that timing and promotion of posts are crucial.

“Post regularly. Talk with other friends to share your posts. Keep up with the news. Remember that posts have higher reach than shares. Check post status and follower’s profile. Be positive to everyone,” Dr. Ong advised.

In using social media for health, he also noted that it is important to expand health topics, find mentors, use ordinary language to break barriers in health belief, and be authentic.

The second Philippine Healthcare and Social Media Summit is organized to bring together healthcare professionals, academe, healthcare industry, patients, and advocates to forge partnerships that can help translate tweets, shares, and likes to concrete actions. ■