Social Media and Today's Physician

Background: Patients indicate that when seeking health information online, they want to hear from physicians, and most often, from their individual physicians. In the era of health information technology and social media, more physicians are seeing opportunities to engage with patients. While one day every physician and nurse will likely maintain a social media presence as health professionals committed to the health of individuals and populations, the current social media landscape is uncharted territory. Dr. Ted Eytan and Laura Dunn will discuss how social media is transforming the relationship between physicians and patients, as well as the challenges, opportunities, and next steps communications professionals who are tasked with helping caregivers engage online

Program background: This presentation will provide perspectives from a physician and a communicator about the opportunities social media offers and how, through excellent partnership with communications departments, physicians can engage in ways that are supportive of patient, family, and community health, while also complying with regulatory and, often, brand guidelines. The presentation will include examples of physician leaders across the nation in Kaiser Permanente. Social media is not a program or a website. Rather, it is a community of people who share similar interests and activities and who interact through online and mobile technologies. Increasingly, social media also plays an important role in how people manage their health. It is our obligation as health care practitioners and communicators to engage with our patients, members, and their families through these channels.

Evaluation Methods and Results: A recent legal review of social media concluded, “in the health care context, complex situations can arise.” There are risks of physicians' comments being taken out of context or staff members unknowingly violating HIPAA guidelines. Therefore, an organizational social media policy is a first step in acknowledging employee activity and managing risks. Kaiser Permanente’s social media policy has been freely available for organizations to learn from and is considered a model in the health care industry.

Conclusions: Health systems can use social media to engage members and potential members by building trust and making large organizations more accessible and approachable. Social media can help patients manage their chronic conditions and make healthy choices; it also can accelerate knowledge acquisition and dissemination for patients and clinicians.

Implications for research and/or practice: Although there are risks for health systems to participate in social media, there are also risks in not participating. In a patient-centered model of health care, absence from social networks that are important to patients can lead to a gap between patients and clinicians.