Making social media work for your practice
Best practices: Privacy and governance in patient-oriented communication on social media
Two factors that have been of pivotal concern with the adoption of social media in the health care arena and led to many health care professionals being laggards as opposed to early adopters are privacy and governance. Will it violate the patient–provider relationship? What about the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act? How do I maintain boundaries between myself and the public at large? These are just a few of the questions that commonly are asked by those who are unfamiliar with social media etiquette for health care professionals. We highly recommend reviewing the position paper regarding online medical professionalism issued by the American College of Physicians and the Federation of State Medical Boards as a starting point.13 We believe the following to be contemporary guiding principles for GI health providers for maintaining a digital footprint on social media that reflects the ethical and professional standards of the field.
First, avoid sharing information that could be construed as a patient identifier without documented consent. This includes, but is not limited to, an identifiable specimen or photograph, and stories of care, rare conditions, and complications. Note that dates and location of care can lead to identification of a patient or care episode.
Second, recognize that personal and professional online profiles/pages are discoverable. Many advocate for separating the two as a means of shielding the public from elements of a private persona (i.e., family pictures and controversial opinions). However, the capacity to share and find comments and images on social media is much more powerful than the privacy settings on the various social media platforms. If you establish distinct personal and professional profiles, exercise caution before accepting friend or follow requests from patients on your personal profile. In addition, be cautious with your posts on private social media accounts because they rarely truly are private.
Third, avoid providing specific medical recommendations to individuals. This creates a patient–provider relationship and legal duty. Instead, recommend consultation with a health care provider and consider providing a link to general information on the topic (e.g., AGA information for patients at www.gastro.org/patientinfo).
Fourth, declare conflicts of interest, if applicable, when sharing information involving your clinical, research, and/or business practice.
Fifth, routinely monitor your online presence for accuracy and appropriateness of content posted by you and by others in reference to you. Know that our profession’s ethical standards for behavior extend to social media and we can be held accountable to colleagues and our employer if we violate them.
Many employers have become savvy to issues of governance in use of social media and institute policy recommendations to which employees are expected to adhere. If you are an employee, we recommend checking with your marketing and/or human resources department(s) in regards to this. If you are an employer and do not have such a policy on online professionalism, it is our hope that this article serves as a launching pad.
Novel applications for social media in clinical practice
Social media has been shown to be an effective medium for medical education through virtual journal clubs, moderated discussions or chats, and video sharing for teaching procedures, to name a few applications. Social media is used to collect data via polls or surveys, and to disseminate and track the views and downloads of published works. It is also a source for unsolicited, real-time feedback on patient experience and engagement through data-mining techniques, such as natural language processing and, more simply, for solicited feedback for patient satisfaction ratings. However, its role in academic promotion is less clear and is an area for which we see a great opportunity for growth.
