Although social media has the potential to have a positive impact on healthcare, there is need for greater accountability and guidelines, especially for physicians who may be risking their patients' privacy, according to a researcher from George Washington School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
According to Katherine Chretien, MD, associate professor of medicine, some physicians who are regular users of Twitter are disseminating unethical and unprofessional content.
The study, approved by the Washington DC VA Medical Center, was initiated to describe the characteristics of self-identified physicians on Twitter and how they use the social networking service, with a specific focus on professionalism.
The researchers examined 5,156 tweets from 260 self-identified physicians with 500 or more followers between May 1 and May 31, 2010. They found that 3 percent of the tweets were categorized as "unprofessional," meaning that they included profanity, potential patient privacy violations, sexually explicit material, or discriminatory statements.
Researchers also found that 1 percent of the tweets were marked "other unprofessional," which included unsupported claims about a product they were selling on their website or repeated promotions of specific health products. Ten of these statements about medical therapies countered existing medical knowledge or guidelines, potentially leading to patient harm.
"This research helped us to identify how physicians are using social media and has helped us gauge whether or not there is need for greater accountability for physicians who use social media," said Chretien. "While the majority of tweets were potentially helpful, the ethical breaches and unprofessional content raised a red flag."
Click here to read the research letter, "Physicians on Twitter," included in the Feb. 9 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.
