By Wes Fisher
Dr.KevinMD Blog
Originally posted on May 28, 2013
The position paper from the American College of Physicians and the Federation of State Medical Boards, is a humbling reminder of the challenges that today’s physicians face when entering the online space.
Their recommendations for online medical professionalism, written by ethics committees for the two organizations, “provides recommendations about the influence of social media on the patient–physician relationship, the role of these media in public perception of physician behaviors, and strategies for physician–physician communication that preserve confidentiality while best using these technologies” — no small amount of territory to summarize.
But given the tenure of their document, I should probably hang up this blog right now. After all, why risk being vulnerable in the online world? While well-meaning on one hand, we should appreciate that physicians have officially been put on notice on how to behave online.
To be fair, I agree with most of what they say. All the things about patient confidentiality are appropriate. All the things about respect for persons, better still.
But to me, the part of the document that wanders off into the “influence of social media on the patient-physician relationship” and the influence of social media on the “public perception of physician behaviors,” is more difficult to gauge in its benefit or detriment to the public discourse.
The entire article is here.
