As more doctors are blogging, using Twitter, or are on Facebook, minding their online reputation becomes more important.
I’ve written and cited several pieces on this issue in the past, and it cannot be stressed enough that what you write or say online stays there forever.
Over at his blog at White Coat Underground, internist PalMD writes about the many potential pitfalls of physicians maintaining an online presence.
For instance, citing HIPAA patient privacy laws, he notes that it’s dangerous to write about individual cases, and instead, “amalgams of patients seen over the years rather than a single individual’s story,” may be a safer approach instead.
And again, don’t count on ever being anonymous on the web. It’s better to use your real name, and take a pro-active approach to your online reputation, rather than letting others define you.
Those wanting the expand online should read the entire piece, but especially, listen to PalMD’s take home point:
In medicine, your reputation is everything. Bad doctors with good reputations do very well, and good doctors with bad reputations starve. How you conduct yourself online is part of building this reputation. Being online can be very rewarding both personally and professionally, it just requires caution and forethought. Every doctor should think very, very hard before they push that “enter” key.
Related posts:
- Online reputation
- Defending your online reputation
- Why doctors and nurses should engage in social media
- Can a doctor sue a patient for a negative online review?
- Cleaning up your online reputation
- Online medical records
- How bad do online doctor rating sites suck?
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While being online has its risks, there is also a benefit. If a patient tries to rip you up online for some perceived fault, it won’t stand out by itself in a Google search, but will only be a tiny (and perhaps un-findable) part of your online reputation.
What I found to be more disconcerting, is seeing one my residents facebook page and seeing he was a major partier. I always insured I repeated everything to the regular doc on rounds, esp if it was Thurs – Mon.
Hang on, there. I don’t deny that there are pitfalls to an online presence, but there are also definite benefits.
Kevin, I came online as a last resort after medicolegal “oversight” (and all of our existing physician “advocacy” organizations) utterly failed me.
If anything, speaking my mind (including saying the occasional “bad word”) and signing my name (which means I am a little more conscious of what I’m typing before I hit “enter”) has kept me IN medcine – rather than running screaming from it.
If I did not have the outlet, I’d probably have given up on a lot of things long ago.
Time and blogging has also, in its way, vindicated the cluster-screw I endured in my own hometown – and under the disinterested noses of federal & state oversight agencies. People/previous clueless (i.e. kept-in-the-dark) locals are following my story – and I believe that sooner or later I will see justice done.
Of course, I am on a “mission” of sorts. I do not blog about current assignments or cases (with perhaps one or two very vague exceptions – more related to politics than patient care).
If more doctors were doing this kind of thing, perhap “reform” would be reform we as doctors could ultimately live with. But as I see it, everybody is scared to death – afraid to lose what they have.
As for me, when you’ve already lost what you wanted most, it does not matter so much.
Not posting foolishness to Facebook, et al should be common sense. I’m not a doctor, but my Facebook presence doesn’t reveal if and who I sleep with, what I think of my employer, exact dates that I am out of town, or anything else I wouldn’t want a casual acquaintance to know. Twitter is even more tight-lipped.
Not trying to be a prig:
“HIPAA patient privacy laws…”
They aren’t laws, they are rule/regulations, implemented by bureaucrats. This is a group separate from congress, but easily confused, as both groups are equally ampled-buttocked, supercilious, and solipsistic.
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