Surgeons See Merit In Social Media

SAN DIEGO -- Facebook, Twitter, and other social media have their rightful place in surgeons' busy schedules, according to several surgeons who participated in a social media symposium at the annual meeting of the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons.

In fact, these media just might help you land your dream job, raise money, screen applicants to your fellowship program, enhance communication with your peers, or strengthen relationships with your patients.

Dr. Gretchen Purcell Jackson noted that 61% of adults in the United States look online for health information. In addition, 41% of patients have read a commentary or shared experiences about health or medical issues in an online news group, website, or blog; 24% of online patients have consulted rankings or reviews of physicians, providers, and hospitals; 60% of active online patients report that using the Web affected a medical decision; and more than 700 hospitals currently use social networking tools.

"People seek and give advice about their health care concerns, they seek and share information about medical problems, and they share stories about their health care experiences. Some people use social media to raise money for health-related causes. Patients are using social media in a wide variety of ways, and they might be talking about you," said Dr. Jackson, an ACS Fellow and assistant professor of surgery and biomedical informatics at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn.

Facebook has 845 million active users making more than 1 billion posts per day, while Twitter has more than 465 million accounts and grows by 11 accounts per second.

Facebook is used by 64% of surgeons, compared with 42% of the general population in the United States, according to Dr. Kiran K. Turaga. "As usual, we surgeons are ahead of the curve, but Facebook has unique characteristics that can affect every single aspect of our lives," said Dr. Turaga, assistant professor of surgery at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. "In terms of trainees, it can affect medical student and resident education, and it can affect recruitment. For patients, you can use this for fund-raising, marketing, forming support groups, increasing awareness [about an aspect of health], recruiting for clinical trials, and monitoring for diseases."

More than 95% of U.S. medical schools have a Facebook presence, Dr. Turaga said, and 71% of these have active student group accounts. In addition, 70% of medical students have active individual Facebook accounts. However, 60% of medical schools have reported incidents of students posting unprofessional content, including profanity (in 52% of cases), breach of patient confidentiality (in 13% of cases), or photos of themselves in a state of intoxication (in 39% of cases) (JAMA 2009;302:1309-15).

Through a sister organization known as Causes (www.causes.com), Facebook has 170 million users who have generated $40 million for 27,000 not-for-profit groups, including hospitals. This makes Facebook "a remarkable tool for fund-raising," Dr. Turaga said. "This could be as simple as raising $1,000 for a new east wing in your hospital."

Furthermore, he said, creating an ad on Facebook allows you to reach 19 million people with an interest in cancer, 600,000 people with an interest in surgery, and 5,000 people with an interest in laparoscopy. Facebook also offers physicians unique opportunities for peer-to-peer interaction by providing a platform for online consultations, virtual tumor boards, journals and summaries of medical news and blogs, and discussions of health care reform and other topics of interest. There are currently 757 Facebook health groups with 300,000 members, he said.

Dr. Turaga warned that posting recognizable patient information on Facebook or other social media channels can violate the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, state criminal laws regarding patient health information, state licensure laws, state professional misconduct laws, and standards set by the Joint Commission.

"If you are considering posting any information that is patient specific, make sure you have exclusive consent of the patient," he said. "The other thing to consider is unnecessary patient-provider interaction, which would mean that you start engaging in a relationship with a patient in which you start giving advice. Then you become liable for that advice, so there can be medical-legal consequences."

Before you start using Facebook or another type of social media, Dr. Turaga recommends considering the acronym POST, which stands for people (whom do you want to target with your social media?), objectives (why do you want to target them?), strategy (how are you going to target them?), and technology (which social media will you use to do so?).

Twitter, a microblogging site that allows communication by posts of no more than 140 characters in length, is an open platform of communication rather than a closed platform, explained Dr. Niraj J. Gusani. "This adds a level of complexity – and possibly risk – that may make this medium less ideal for health care professional use. Anything that you post can be seen by anyone in the world at any time. There’s no filter. On the other hand, Twitter has a wide reach, and it’s easy for people to find you," said Dr. Gusani, an ACS Fellow and assistant professor of surgery, medicine, and public health sciences at Pennsylvania State University, Hershey.