Physician Social Media Abuse: What Would You Do?

Over the past decade, physician social media use has been made popular and evolved from simple Facebook pages to rapid, instant media sharing. New social media applications, such as Snapchat and Instagram, are finding welcome homes in personal cell phones of physicians. The purpose of this article is to determine patients' views of not only physician use of these apps but also how they would react if their physician abused this technology. As outlined in the article below, physician abuse of social media is growing-and not strictly confined to one demographic group of physicians. The results of this study show patient concern over physician use of social media and the potential for patient to take legal action against physicians over social media abuse. Future policy directions should aim to increase transparency of physician social media use with the goal of eliminating social media abuse.

Social Media in Health Care: How Close Is Too Close?

Social media use is increasing personally and professionally across numerous industries worldwide. The purpose of this article is to explore the utilization of social media in the health care field; specifically, how the treatment of a physician's Facebook friends would differ from that of a patient the physician did not know prior to treatment. While there are several benefits that come with incorporating social media into health care, as well as into the physician-patient relationship, there are also immense risks. The present study surveyed physicians to assess their opinions on the boundaries of an appropriate patient-physician relationship on social media. Fifty-six of 70 physicians responded with their attitudes on the difference between adding a patient as a friend and adding a friend as a patient, as well as the difference in care between the two. The results of the study showed that most physicians would not be opposed to taking on their Facebook friends as patients; however, the care they provide could potentially be radically different between their Facebook friend and an average patient. This means that patients should take extra care before asking their Facebook physician friends for formal care when they are in need.