ACOG on professional use of Digital and Social Media: Physicians, think twice before you post on social media.

Courtesy: LinkedIn.com

The definition of Social Media is constantly evolving and we come across new platforms very frequently in our daily life. The role of social media in the medical and health care sectors is far reaching, including many social media tools that are available for Health Care Professionals as an aid in our day to day practice.

Physicians use social media for both personal and professional activities.

It is a powerful tool that provides collaboration between patients and doctors, eventually improving health outcomes.

However, Social media is a two-way sword, presenting as potential risk to patients and public because of breach of patient’s privacy and being unreliable source of information creating unnecessary anxiety. It also affects physicians by damaging the professional image of the physician, violation of personal–professional boundaries, and licensing or legal issues. Many health care institutions and professional organizations have issued guidelines about how to use the social media responsibly.

Courtesy: ACOG video 

Here are few recommendations and guidelines from ACOG about professional use of Digital and Social Media.

Liability

The rules and regulations that hold good for in-person communication are also equally good for online activities. In USA, The Federation of State Medical Boards have issued a model policy guideline, in addition to which many states medical boards have their own guidelines. A physician should be aware of both of these.

Patient -physician Relationship

In view of future litigation, centered around the use of social media in clinical practice, the broadest definition is adopted here. A physician should be very cautious about offering any sort of medical advice on social media to a person who is not your patient, because it is viewed as establishing a patient–physician relationship because now electronic record exist for what was communicated.

Courtesy: ACOG video 

Courtesy: ACOG video 

Online Behavior and Risks

Online or other digital communication with the patient should be in accordance to guidelines for any other form of patient-physician relationship. All the on-line communication should respect patient privacy and should be done over secure network. They can be password protected to make sure that it is not accessed by other physicians.

The guidelines strongly discourage physicians   form giving online advice or to advice a specific medical question for someone who is not your patient.

Health Care Team Communication

Communicating publicly about any work related event or specific patients may violate patient and physician privacy. Even a general talk or post is discouraged as it can be traced back to institution and eventually the patient and physician.

Often times plastic surgeons bragging about ‘ job well done ‘  on Instagram have ended up slapped with a high profile case.

Posting work related content on social media, even if it is intended for other health care physicians is considered high-risk online behavior and is strongly discouraged.

Health care team member who wish to communicate with each other online u sing digital media should use password-protected electronic medical records( EMRs ) or encrypted sites, such as SharePoint.

Maintaining a Professional Web Page

Maintaining a professional web page has become a common form of communication between individuals, groups and organizations. Such pages directly reflect the thoughts and commitments of the person or organization. Physicians who maintain a web page to give advice to patients, carry the same liability as of a face-to-face encounter.

If they direct patients to a particular web site, they should be well aware of its content and it is in accordance with the practice policy.

Maintaining a Professional Social Media Profile

Social Media Profile have fast become a means to each greater audience or patients. It serves as auxiliary platform for your other sites like blogs and website. However, physicians should be well aware of the practice of tagging them by other groups or individuals in post that are not in accordance with your professional image. The content you are tagged may be obscene or undesirable.

The physicians should be aware of security settings and be vigilant and keep the site under surveillance all the time to ensure that any undesired content is discovered and addressed promptly.

Maintaining a Personal Social Media Profile

About 90% of US physicians have a personal social media profile. The physician should understand that content posted here reach greater audience and become a public material. A physician should be cautious about sharing personal information with informal audience.

Personal Interaction with Patients on Social Media

Making patients ‘friend’ on social media has been debated across many platforms. Instead of becoming friend, many physicians ask the patients to ‘follow’ them instead of becoming friends.

A recent survey revealed that 75% of physicians declined an invitation to become online “friends” with a patient. Several medical societies have asked the physicians to refrain from making patients ‘friend’, but refer them to their professional page.

Online ‘Ratings’ of physician.

Physicians have a choice to be a part of particular rating site and providing them with his information. Any negative review or information should be communicated with the host site and dealt as per rules. They should monitor this site and abide to the codes of professionalism.

Building Professional or Scholarly Networks Through Social Media

Use of professional social media help physicians to share their work across larger audiences of like-minded professionals and offer a chance to establish dialogues with persons sitting miles apart.

Many closed groups have burgeoned on social network sites such that the communication remains only between the group members and not exposed to public. Still, physicians should exercise caution not to publish content that could be interpreted as offensive or inappropriate for mass dissemination.

Social media have become indispensable in day to day life of  physicians to maintain various form of communications, and if a physician knows  how to  monitor digital presence and maintain a low risk behavior it can be a blessings for his personal and professional life.

In this video, ACOG's Junior Fellows present a fun, yet informative take on using social media platforms professionally, respectfully, and appropriately.

                            Social Media Professionalism in the Medical Community