Patient Confidentiality and Facebook

In The Ethicist column of the New York Times yesterday, Randy Cohen wrote about medical students posting pictures and comments about patients on Facebook. I am sometimes a bit surprised by what my attending colleagues and friends post about patients, too. Sometimes they write about specific details regarding other physicians, hospital operations, and patient encounters. As medical professionals, shouldn't our integrity and respect extend beyond the clinical arena to Facebook and other online forums?

Click Here to read The Ethicist article.

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Medical School, Residency and Social Media

Do admissions officers look at Facebook? Are they on Twitter? Do they google applicants? Do they read the Student Doctor Network forums? Yes.

I find that many applicants are paranoid about what might be discovered about them on line. Take control. Why not make your virtual persona someone of whom you would be proud? Follow respectable people and organizations on Twitter. Create a blog where you showcase your writing, ideas or advocate for good causes. Create a public Facebook profile that any admissions officer would love. Leverage your on line presence to your advantage so that when someone "finds you," they will be impressed.

Social media is so new that many medical schools and hospitals are forming committees to discuss how to manage this technology. For example, a group of residents at a major medical center recently published a video on Facebook that was obviously created while "on the job." This was discovered by the hospital leadership and caused a cascade of events causing the hospital to examine their "policies" regarding social media. So, be careful. Seemingly innocent postings can sometimes lead to unforeseen consequences.

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MedEdits: Medical School Admissions, Get Into Medical School on Facebook

Facebook and Medicine

Wow. Facebook made it to the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Sachin H. Jain discusses some issues pertaining to professionalism when a former patient "friended" her on Facebook.

With so much personal information on social networking sites, does accepting people who aren't really your "friends" blur the lines beyond what is appropriate? Is this unprofessional? There are people out there who speculate that employers and admissions officers now scan Facebook and MySpace pages to glean information about their future proteges. Are patients also doing the same? What are the potential legal implications of this?

I advise students to be very careful with their on line personas and identities. While the Facebook generation is open and less formal than some of their more senior educators, your professional reputation starts before you matriculate in medical school and you don't want to do anything that might tarnish your image. Also, once you enter medical school, you represent the medical profession as a whole. So, think before you confirm a "friend" or post an incriminating photo. Or maybe it is time to just take down that profile.

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Facebook: Do Admissions Officers Look?

An article today in the Wall Street Journal reports on the results of a survey submitted to admissions officers of 500 highly selective colleges. The survey asked if admissions officers looked at social networking sites to help them evaluate applicants. 10% of respondents said they did look at sites such as Facebook and 38% of those said that this negatively impacted their views of the applicant.

While a similar survey has not been sent to medical school and residency admissions officers (as far as I know), these results are intriguing. It is best to keep your Facebook and MySpace pages clean. Assume that admissions officers are looking. To be safe, post photos that you would use on your application and only write about things that you would be comfortable discussing on interviews. Also be sure to use privacy settings so posts can't be viewed by the general public.

Along the same lines, make sure you have a respectable email address since most communications with schools and program directors are done via email.

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