Benefits and Dangers as Doctors Start to Use Social Media

From Medscape:

"Dr. Choi has more than 3000 Facebook friends, many of whom are patients and colleagues.

But he draws the line at talking about cases with colleagues or sending diagnoses or test results to patients on networking sites. "I can't do any patient care using their messaging or using the site because it's not HIPAA-compliant," Dr. Choi says. "I'll pick up the phone to discuss a case."

Because doctors can be hesitant to share their e-mail addresses -- and regular e-mail is not secure to HIPAA standards -- it's not unheard of for people to find their doctors on Facebook. But the doctors interviewed generally say they avoid making diagnoses or communicating test results over the Internet."

References:
Doctors and Social Media: Benefits and Dangers. Medscape, 2010.
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/711717
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1 comment:

  1. Shellwege10/19/2010 9:39 AM

    I want to comment about one virtual hospital in facebook what I recently discovered. Im a doctor and I know that this sites are dangerous for the patients. In this sites these mdical students or doctors (noone knows who is doctor or who not) are giving diagnosis and treatment to patients by this facebook site only based in the symptoms what the patients wrote to them.

    http://www.facebook.com/WFD.Hospital?ref=mf

    This page is not ethic, we as doctors must have respect for the patient and for the medical practice. Its important to know how is good to share medical knowledge, of course facebook is not a place to give medical advices.

    Thanks for the post, greetings fron Germany

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