Physicians and social media: AMA weighs in

Recently, the American Medical Association (AMA) adopted a policy aimed at educating physicians on the use of social media. Many industries use social media to gain attention, but the AMA is taking steps so that the integrity of the medical profession remains intact, and so that the patient-physician relationship is not undermined.

The AMA issued a press release, available here. The press release focuses on the use of privacy settings, encourages internet monitoring, and more. For example, here is an excerpt from the press release:

"[P]hysicians should routinely monitor their own Internet presence to ensure that the personal and professional information on their own sites and, to the extent possible, content posted about them by others, is accurate and appropriate."

 Just as impacting,

"[p]hysicians must recognize that actions online and content posted may negatively affect their reputations among patients and colleagues, may have consequences for their medical careers (particularly for physicians-in-training and medical students), and can undermine public trust in the medical profession."

 The AMA appears to be concerned with both the patients and the professionals. Likewise, protection of the industry as a whole is also an obvious objective. Evan H. Farr on Google +