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BUSINESS ADVISOR
Nevertheless, you should never offer specific medical advice to
readers online in any form or forum — blog comments, email, Twitter,
Facebook or anywhere else. You haven't examined them or looked at
their radiology or laboratory tests. You should emphasize that any
information you give is intended for information and educational purposes only. Answer in general terms about those injuries. And stress
that they should consult with their doctor for any specific medical
questions or concerns.
I might accidentally say something inappropriate online.
I honestly believe this is more of a concern hospitals, academic
medical centers and medical organizations use to discourage individual providers from getting involved in social media than one from the
physicians themselves. I don't think it actually happens very often.
There's something about hitting "Send" or "Publish" that makes people think twice. As prominent pediatrician Wendy Sue Swanson, MD,
(better known as Seattle Mama Doc) has noted, doctors are more
likely to get into trouble in the elevators at work than online.
Confidentiality and professionalism are essential online, without question. You can't share a patient's information without his permission.
Social media is also not the place to vent about patients, other doctors
or anyone else. Most readers will not know what you're talking about,
and the tone of your comments will only reflect poorly on you and your
brand.
Having said that, a recent study published as a letter in JAMA
showed that only 3% of the tweets from physicians with more than
500 Twitter followers were found to be unprofessional. I suspect that
if you studied the providers that really understand social media, it
would be far less common.
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