#PauseBeforeYouPost: Ethical and Legal Issues Involving Medical Social Media

Medical social media (SoMe) has continued to grow in popularity and complexity with an estimated 90% of clinicians using it personally and 65% professionally.[1] Likewise, over half of clinicians report using SoMe for educational purposes,[2] and 85% of the general public use SoMe to connect with and seek healthcare information.[3] These platforms have numerous benefits, facilitating networking, education, advocacy, and outreach. It is not uncommon for conferences to now have sessions highlighting SoMe as a powerful tool for practice building and advertisement. Crowdsourcing can also help both patients and clinicians navigate challenging clinical decisions by seeking advice from experts across practices and continents, which would be difficult to access or facilitate efficiently through other forums.

However, these numerous benefits come with an equally diverse set of risks including concerns regarding patient privacy and dignity, conflicts of interest, interprofessional respect, information accuracy/misuse, and equity and justice.[1] [4] [5] [6] [7] Even online activity occurring on personal accounts can have professional implications, affecting enrollment, employment, and litigation. A growing number of organizations, professional groups, and literature are calling attention to these issues, but, in the authors' opinion, these risks are generally underdiscussed and appreciated. This article uses a series of anonymized case examples to highlight some of these challenges and offers suggestions on how to avoid potential pitfalls while taking advantage of the many beneficial aspects of medical SoMe.

Publikationsverlauf

Artikel online veröffentlicht:
30. Juni 2022

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