practice partner
patient, their story could wind up anywhere.
Dr. Devon is active on a couple of Face-
book groups, one led by physicians and
another by patients. If referencing a patient,
she goes beyond de-identifying; she also gen-
erally gets express written permission from
the patient to share information, and states
that she has that permission. It’s an extra
layer of precaution.
Social media offers opportunities and
demands responsibility
For guidance on responsible social media
use, it’s helpful to review the College docu-
ment on the topic, as well as other relevant
College policies including Confidentiality
of Personal Health Information; Main-
taining Appropriate Boundaries and
Preventing Sexual Abuse; and Physician
Behaviour in the Professional Environ-
ment. The College has also developed an
educational module about social media and
it is posted on the website.
Other bodies for doctors, like the Cana-
dian Medical Association and the Canadian
Medical Protective Association, have pub-
lished material on their websites about the
opportunities and responsibilities around
using social media.
To be sure, there are a range of other issues
around social media use by doctors. Like
friending patients, posting content (even
personal) that might be viewed as unprofes-
sional, and providing clinical advice to spe-
cific patients (as opposed to generic health
information for educational or information
sharing purposes).
Sometimes the obligations around privacy
and confidentiality get extra scrutiny be-
cause social media breaches grab headlines.
Several cases in other jurisdictions show how
a doctor or other health-care professional has
gone way over the line.
In one incident, a model/actress was
admitted to emergency for excessive alcohol
consumption. Without her consent, a doc-
tor allegedly took and posted embarrassing
photos on Instagram of the woman crying,
dishevelled and hooked up to an IV.
An Edmonton pharmacist once landed in
hot water after she got into a dispute with
a group of women at her church about the
romantic activities of a man in the congre-
gation. The pharmacist posted disparaging
comments about one female congregant on
Facebook. When the woman complained,
the pharmacist then accessed her health
records and posted information about her
prescription medication use online.
Other times, health-care professionals have
found negative reviews of themselves on
rating sites, and actually scolded the patients
online and revealed details about their health.
Cases don’t have to be so egregious to be
serious. On social media, as elsewhere, it’s
paramount to always respect patient privacy
and confidentiality, no matter the forum.
If patient privacy and confidentiality is
breached, it may not matter if it was because
of carelessness rather than intent. The words
and images posted online can undermine
patient trust and harm the reputation of the
physician, their institutions and the profes-
sion.
For doctors, social media does have a lot
to offer. It can be valuable to connect with
other medical professionals on Twitter, share
health-care information with the public, or
comment online about difficult or interest-
ing cases.
As Dr. Devon observes, “The world is
changing how we learn and teach, and social
media is a great tool.” Just remember, she
says, whether patients are Googling doc-
tors or doctors are posting about patients,
“people are listening – and evaluating.”
MD
Issue 2, 2017 Dialogue
45