How Doctors View and Use Social Media: A National Survey

Background Doctors are uncertain of their ethical and legal obligations when communicating with patients online. Professional guidelines for patient-doctor interaction online have been written with limited quantitative data about doctors’ current usage and attitudes toward the medium. Further research into these trends will help to inform more focused policy and guidelines for doctors communicating with patients online. Objective The intent of the study was to provide the first national profile of Australian doctors’ attitudes toward and use of online social media. Methods The study involved a quantitative, cross-sectional online survey of Australian doctors using a random sample from a large representative database. Results Of the 1500 doctors approached, 187 participated (12.47%). Most participants used social media privately, with only one-quarter not using any social media websites at all (48/187, 25.7%). One in five participants (30/155, 19.4%) had received a “friend request” from a patient. There was limited use of online communication in clinical practice: only 30.5% (57/187) had communicated with a patient through email and fewer than half (89/185, 48.1%) could offer their patients electronic forms of information if that were the patients’ preference. Three in five participants (110/181, 60.8%) reported not being uncomfortable about interacting with patients who had accessed personal information about them online, prior to the consultation. Most of the participants (119/181, 65.8%) were hesitant to immerse themselves more fully in social media and online communication due to worries about public access and legal concerns. Conclusions Doctors have different practices and views regarding whether or how to communicate appropriately with patients on the Internet, despite online and social media becoming an increasingly common feature of clinical practice. Additional training would assist doctors in protecting their personal information online, integrating online communication in patient care, and guidance on the best approach in ethically difficult online situations.

[1]  M. Decamp.  Social media guidance, conflicts of interest, and health inequalities , 2012, The Lancet.

[2]  J. Grant-Kels,et al.  "You'd know if you 'friended' me on Facebook": legal, moral, and ethical considerations of online social media. , 2013, Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.

[3]  S. Greysen,et al.  To Friend or Not to Friend? Social Networking and Faculty Perceptions of Online Professionalism , 2011, Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

[4]  D. Frosch.  The Patient–Doctor Relationship and Online Social Networks: Results of a National Survey , 2012, Journal of General Internal Medicine.

[5]  Anthony Harris,et al.  Psychiatry and online social media: potential, pitfalls and ethical guidelines for psychiatrists and trainees , 2012, Australasian psychiatry : bulletin of Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists.

[6]  Should I be "friends" with my patients on social networking web sites? , 2011, American family physician.

[7]  G. Gabbard,et al.  Professional Boundaries in the Era of the Internet , 2011, Academic psychiatry : the journal of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training and the Association for Academic Psychiatry.

[8]  A. Mostaghimi,et al.  Professionalism in the Digital Age , 2011, Annals of Internal Medicine.

[9]  Guyonne Kalb,et al.  A randomised trial and economic evaluation of the effect of response mode on response rate, response bias, and item non-response in a survey of doctors , 2011, BMC medical research methodology.

[10]  K. Tates,et al.  Patients' and health professionals' use of social media in health care: motives, barriers and expectations. , 2013, Patient education and counseling.

[11]  Lisette Schoonhoven,et al.  Social Media and Rating Sites as Tools to Understanding Quality of Care: A Scoping Review , 2014, Journal of medical Internet research.

[12]  N. Hjollund,et al.  Response Rate and Completeness of Questionnaires: A Randomized Study of Internet Versus Paper-and-Pencil Versions , 2007, Journal of medical Internet research.

[13]  A. Hanbury,et al.  Utilization and Perceived Problems of Online Medical Resources and Search Tools Among Different Groups of European Physicians , 2013, Journal of medical Internet research.

[14]  J. Carroll,et al.  A New Dimension of Health Care: Systematic Review of the Uses, Benefits, and Limitations of Social Media for Health Communication , 2013, Journal of medical Internet research.

[15]  Ygal Benhamou,et al.  Facebook activity of residents and fellows and its impact on the doctor–patient relationship , 2010, Journal of Medical Ethics.

[16]  Sachin H. Jain,et al.  Practicing medicine in the age of Facebook. , 2009, The New England journal of medicine.

[17]  Tse-Hua Shih,et al.  Comparing Response Rates from Web and Mail Surveys: A Meta-Analysis , 2008 .

[18]  M. Wasko,et al.  Understanding the Factors That Influence the Adoption and Meaningful Use of Social Media by Physicians to Share Medical Information , 2012, Journal of medical Internet research.

[19]  Veronika Stefanov,et al.  Physicians searching the web for medical question answering: A European survey and local user studies , 2013, MedInfo.

[20]  K. Coughlin,et al.  Paediatricians, social media and blogs: Ethical considerations. , 2012, Paediatrics & child health.

[21]  Ralf Terlutter,et al.  Who Uses Physician-Rating Websites? Differences in Sociodemographic Variables, Psychographic Variables, and Health Status of Users and Nonusers of Physician-Rating Websites , 2014, Journal of medical Internet research.

[22]  Verina Wild,et al.  The Impact of Social Media on Medical Professionalism: A Systematic Qualitative Review of Challenges and Opportunities , 2013, Journal of medical Internet research.

[23]  B. Bonevski,et al.  Response rates in GP surveys - trialling two recruitment strategies. , 2011, Australian family physician.

[24]  Kim Bartel Sheehan,et al.  E-mail Survey Response Rates: A Review , 2006, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[25]  G. Eysenbach,et al.  Social Media: A Review and Tutorial of Applications in Medicine and Health Care , 2014, Journal of medical Internet research.

[26]  Vineet M Arora,et al.  Online Medical Professionalism: Patient and Public Relationships: Policy Statement From the American College of Physicians and the Federation of State Medical Boards , 2013, Annals of Internal Medicine.

[27]  Gunther Eysenbach,et al.  Improving the Quality of Web Surveys: The Checklist for Reporting Results of Internet E-Surveys (CHERRIES) , 2004, Journal of medical Internet research.

[28]  Sidney S. Fels,et al.  Sociotechnical Challenges and Progress in Using Social Media for Health , 2013, Journal of medical Internet research.

[29]  Sharmila Devi,et al.  Facebook friend request from a patient? , 2011, The Lancet.

[30]  Wayne Usher,et al.  Types of Social Media (Web 2.0) Used by Australian Allied Health Professionals to Deliver Early Twenty-First-Century Practice Promotion and Health Care , 2011, Social work in health care.

[31]  Wayne Usher.  Australian health professionals' social media (Web 2.0) adoption trends: early 21st century health care delivery and practice promotion. , 2012, Australian journal of primary health.

[32]  Social media and medical professionalism: toward an expanded program. , 2012, Archives of internal medicine.

[33]  Aparna H. Kolli,et al.  Social Media, Surgeons, and the Internet: An Era or an Error? , 2012, The American surgeon.

[34]  Social media in primary health care: opportunities to enhance education, communication and collaboration among professionals in rural and remote locations: did you know? Practical practice pointers. , 2013, The Australian journal of rural health.