Doctors cautious as they wade into social media
July 24, 2011 by admin
Filed under Choosing Lingerie
Doctors cautiously wade into social media
| Saturday, Jul 23 2011 07:21 PM
Last Updated Saturday, Jul 23 2011 10:16 PM
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Dr. Milan Shah uses social media to communicate with his patients and potential patients.
Dr. Milan Shah, who specializes in aesthetic and laser medicine, was curious about how Bakersfield residents viewed their tattoos.
He posted a poll on his office’s Facebook page, and found many people wanted to remove their ink inscriptions, but were worried about the cost and the pain.
“In this poll, we found there was a lot of misinformation out there, and we knew we needed to educate people on that,” he said. “I really think Facebook and Twitter have opened up the possibilities for so much in the field of medicine.”
Shah and other health care workers are increasingly promoting their offerings, educating consumers and forming online communities through social media. That’s especially important as one in five Americans is using social media sites such as Facebook as a source of health care information, according to a 2011 National Research Corp. Ticker survey.
But as they follow their patients’ online migration, medical professionals have to tread especially carefully when it comes to privacy and legal concerns.
Health care providers “all see the potential and promise, but they’re still trying to find their footing,” said Bob Brown, a partner of BryantBROWN Healthcare, a L.A.-based marketing firm. “They think they can and should play a role in social media, but there’s a lot of confusion over using it.”
Health care’s challenges
The goal for health care workers is to ensure their online presence matches their offline attention to federal privacy laws, such as not mentioning or photographing patients without their consent, experts say. It’s also important for practitioners not to give specific medical advice online.
The pharmaceutical industry faces additional regulations that govern fairness and balance, Brown said. If they tout the benefits of a drug on their Facebook page, they need to give equal space to its risk — even if they’re not the ones posting the comment. The industry is looking to the FDA to publish more definite guidelines, Brown added.
“It’s uncharted territory and there’s a bunch of questions swirling,” he said.
Despite the extra caution, social media is terrain worth exploring for health care workers, said Mark Brooks, a New York-based consultant who specializes in social media. He advises doctors and hospitals to launch Twitter, blogs and Linkedin, a professional networking site.
“Doctors and hospitals have a real opportunity to distinguish themselves as skilled and caring and value-oriented providers,” Brooks said.
Doctors using Facebook
Among doctors, the specialties most likely to embrace social media are elective or aesthetic practices, such as plastic surgery, said Keith Humes, the CEO of Rosemont Media, a San Diego-based ad agency that specializes in elective health care. That’s because those patients may be paying out of pocket, and interested in doing more research before signing on with a particular doctor.
The pages can help add validity to a doctor’s practice and connect patients, he said. Sometimes, the Facebook sites even turn into impromptu support groups, with new patients expressing their apprehension, and more seasoned ones responding.
Dr. Edmund Fisher, a Bakersfield facial plastic surgeon, uses Facebook to showcase before and after photographs of patients’ face lifts or chin implants. He said he is always careful to get signed permission.
For Shah, the Bakersfield doctor specializing in aesthetic medicine, Facebook is especially useful because of its targeted approach to spreading information. For a long time, clients had asked about non-surgical options for skin tightening. When his group bought a new laser that could accomplish that, they communicated the news via their Facebook site, which has more than 1,200 “likes.”
They also use the site to communicate special deals or conduct polls, such as “What is your biggest fear about having a tummy tuck?” But Shah said he and his colleagues are careful to “keep it light,” and refrain from discussing any particular patient’s experience that might violate privacy laws.
“There are tons of new laws and regulations and it’s on the top of our minds constantly,” he said.
That’s why Dr. Jan Trobisch, a Bakersfield internal medicine doctor who specializes in addiction and weight loss, said he frequently combs guidelines on how to behave online. He’s careful even if a patient sends a private message on Facebook since it comes through a third-party site. If a patient instant messages him, he never gives advice. And, he’d never suggest that his “fans” use a particular drug.
When he’s creating posts, Trobisch often considers: When does a doctor/patient relationship start?
“If I say drink plenty of water a day, and someone goes crazy and drinks three gallons, they could say it was medical advice,” he said. “As a doctor, it’s not as easy to use social media as a tanning salon.”
Still, Trobisch plans to expand the use of his Facebook account, and offer frequent health tips for his weight-loss practice.
Hospitals ahead
Hospitals are ahead of the curve when it comes to using social media in the health care sector, said Brown, the health care marketing expert. Since it’s important to frequently update one’s presence — or disappointed users won’t come back — some hospitals have created a full-time position for those tasks.
Locally, San Joaquin Community Hospital created an electronic media coordinator role last month.
“We felt it was time to get serious about social media and the changing landscape,” saidJarrod McNaughton, a hospital vice president.
For Jimmy Phillips, the new role means sending out Twitter feeds, updating Facebook and posting videos on the hospital’s YouTube channel. People get bored with strictly business postings, so Phillips tries to bring a human angle to the hospital’s Facebook page. He recently videotaped the employee of the month presentation, a post that received 11 “likes” including one from the hospital’s CEO.
He’ll also use the site to post questions such as: What builds loyalty, or post fun, medical-related news stories such as that of a Texas baby born at 16 pounds.
“My job is to interact with the people in Bakersfield,” he said. “If we’re perceived as being ‘with it’ with social media, we’re also perceived as being ‘with it’ clinically.”
Like the physicians, he looks at each post through the lens of privacy. When he took a picture of firefighters hanging out with burn survivors, he purposely avoided the patients’ faces.
Bakersfield Memorial Hospital also is hoping to one day create a full-time social media position, according to spokeswoman Michelle Willow. And Mercy Hospitals of Bakersfield, which is on Facebook and Twitter, has plans to enhance its Facebook page, said spokeswoman Sandy Doucette.
