Social Media Flashcards
What are the main points entailed in the GMC guidance surrounding Social Media use?
1) Privacy - be aware of the limitations of privacy online and regularly review the privacy settings
2) Maintaining boundaries - maintain a professional boundary between you and your patient
3) Respect others - do not bully, harass, or make gratuitous, unsubstantiated of unsustainable comments about people online
4) Respect the law - when interacting with or commenting about individuals or organisations online. Postings are subject to the same laws of copyright and defamation.
5) Disclose interests - when posting material online, be open about any conflict of interest and declare any financial or commercial interests in healthcare organisations or pharmaceutical companies
What should you do if a patient contacts you about their care through social media?
You should indicate that you cannot mix social and professional relationships and, where appropriate, direct them to your professional profile.
What are the issues with social media use and maintaining confidentiality?
Must not share identifiable information about patients online.
Although individual pieces of information may not breach confidentiality on their own, the sum of published information online could be enough to identify a patient or someone close to them.
You must not use publicly accessible social media to discuss individual patients or their care with those patients or anyone else
What are the issues with posting/commenting about individuals or organisations online?
When interacting with or commenting about individuals or organisations online, you should be aware that postings online are subject to the same laws of copyright and defamation as written or verbal communications, whether they are made in a personal or professional capacity.
What are the principles surrounding anonymity and social media?
If you identify yourself as a doctor on social media, you should also identify yourself by name. Any material written by authors who represent themselves as doctors is likely to be taken on trust and may reasonably be taken to represent the views of the profession more widely.
Must also be aware that content uploaded anonymously can be traced back to its point of origin.
What are the principles surrounding privacy and social media use by Doctors?
You should regularly review the privacy settings for each of your social media profiles. This is because social media sites cannot guarantee confidentiality whatever privacy settings are in place.
Patients, your employer, and potential employers may be able to access your personal information.
Information about your location may be embedded within photographs and other content and available for others to see. Once information is published online it can be difficult to remove as other users may distribute it further or comment on it.
What are the rules surrounding the advertisement of services?
You must ensure the information you publish is factual and can be checked, and does not exploit patients’ vulnerability or lack of medical knowledge
Also - FY1s cannot advertise medical services as not fully registered yet.
How do you ensure confidentiality of patient information?
You must make sure any personal
information about patients that you hold or control is effectively protected at all times against improper access, disclosure or loss. You should not leave patients’ records, or other notes you make about patients, either on paper or on screen, unattended. You should not share passwords.
