Social media

Addressing comments on your medical practice’s Facebook page

Social media
February 13, 2012

Does your medical practice allow anybody to post links and comments on your Facebook page?

The short answer is yes. We do. Why? Because we think allowing patient to post links and commenting on our practice’s Facebook page helps us achieve these four things:

1. It encourages communication.
2. It allows us to address issues that we would otherwise have a hard time addressing.
3. Other patients will benefit by reading the discussions.
4. We …

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5 ways doctors can benefit from professional connections

Social media
January 22, 2012

Looking ahead to the next several months, I’ve found myself frequently wondering how many physicians will make this their year to take the plunge and join an online social network. There are significant advantages that can be gained for doctors who embrace social media. Here are five ways you and your practice can benefit from such professional connections.

1. Finding a better job. The business of the health care economy continues to …

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7 tips to avoid HIPAA violations in social media

Social media
June 6, 2011

There have been a couple of widely-publicized cases recently of physicians divulging patient information in social media. I’m sure the doctors involved did not intend to violate patient privacy.

While there are several excellent guidelines and policies on this topic, there isn’t a whole lot of practical advice, so here are my tips to help you avoid privacy violations (I hope this is the beginning of a conversation …

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Quora in health and medicine, what doctors and nurses need to know

Social media
January 17, 2011

by Phil Baumann, RN

What assets do physicians nurse practitioners have which they can share online? It’s knowledge.

With today’s technologies, medicine and nursing care online are obviously limited – perhaps in the future we’ll have technologies which more robustly extend traditional care.

When patients seek information online, they’re usually looking for answers to questions. Now they may be seeking answers from different sources, but if they could find …

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Facebook friend issues between doctor and patient

Social media
July 16, 2010

My friend and colleague Katherine Chretien has a provocative op-ed in USA Today entitled, “A doctor’s request: Please don’t ‘friend’ me,” which asks the question whether doctors and patients should interact in social networking sites such as Facebook.

Social networking has huge potential in health care regarding the sharing of information and ideas, and could possibly even enhance communication between doctors and patients. However, as Dr. Chretien points out, many …

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Facebook friends with patients can violate HIPAA privacy laws

Social media
June 18, 2010

Should you friend your doctor on Facebook?

It’s a question that’s gaining increasing relevance as Facebook increases its social networking dominance.

I’ve touched upon the issue in the past. So has the New England Journal of Medicine.

Washington, DC physician Katherine Chretian gives her take on the issue in a recent USA Today op-ed. She is an expert of the Facebook-medicine intersection, having authored a JAMA study on the …

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House, M.D. physician technical advisor interview

Social media
May 21, 2010

by Ryan DuBosar

“House, M.D.,” is the least realistic medical drama on television. That doesn’t bother Lisa Sanders, ACP Member, one of the show’s technical advisors.

The lead character, Gregory House, MD, verbally abuses patients, goes overboard ordering tests and above all, he’s “a jerk,” Dr. Sanders said. But after all, it’s television, and the former CBS news producer turned med student turned Yale professor understands the difference between reality and good …

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Medical students using Facebook and Twitter can get expelled

Social media
September 22, 2009

by Chris Emery, Contributing Writer, MedPage Today

A large number of U.S. medical schools say students have posted unprofessional material on Web sites such as MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter, but few schools have adequate policies in place for dealing with such behavior, a new study found.

medpage-today Of 78 U.S. medical schools that responded to a survey, 60% reported incidents of …

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Is House M.D. bad for medicine?

Social media
May 17, 2009

A few days ago, we talked about how Scrubs was a relatively accurate portrayal of medical life.

Let’s talk about the other end of the spectrum, namely, Fox’s House M.D.

As an emergency physician notes, the doctors in the House-universe seem super-human. Indeed, “the docs on that show are not only walking encyclopedias of rare diseases, but they are …

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