Facebook and physicians: Not good medicine

[JMH]

When Matt Goldstein entered medical school at Stanford, his instructors warned him about keeping Facebook or Twitter pages, saying that social media activity could lead to violations of HIPAA patient privacy rules.

As he prepares to begin his residency, Goldstein has once again received the now familiar warning. "I actually just got an email from my residency program, and they cautioned us strongly about social media and about using it judiciously."

Medical students and physicians face the choice of either not using social media or using pseudonyms that only friends know in order to avoid violating privacy rules and to steer clear of inappropriate contact with patients.

http://www.itworld.com/unified-communications/278274/facebook-and-physicians-not-good-medicine

 

[Corrine]

Attorneys should likely have similar concerns due to attorney/client privileged communications.

 

[Temmu]

due to hippo, it is almost guaranteed a violation to exchange email between a dr and their patient.

and, lol, hippo was supposed to =increase= information availability, but indeed, it has dramatically =reduced= it. so sad for the patient.