Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Physician and Social Media Survey

On the American Medical News site, here's an interesting article about a recent study about social media use by physicians. According to a survey by QuantiaMD, nearly 90% of physicians use social media, much more than the general public. Most social media use---about 67%---is for personal reasons. A third of physicians reported getting at least one Facebook friend request from a patient, but most of these requests are turned down. For me the most interesting thing was that only 8% of physicians reported using a blog for professional reasons. That seemed low to me.

Not too much more to add, just thought I'd put up a link to the article.

11 comments:

Sideways Shrink said...

I do have friends on my Facebook page who are patients. I feel like it is a confession. Sure, I don't have pictures of my husband or daughters on my Facebook page and not every patient would even want to be my friend on Facebook, but it is an odd balance. I wanted to let my college friends know that my husband's major ear/craniotomy surgery had gone well and doing so meant my patient friends would know as well. That is why I have only allowed patients to be "friends" who are well enough to handle the transference of knowing what is going on in my life. Because that is the boundary that the shrink is transgressing. I posted when my father died. These are the things you risk when you have patients as "friends" on Facebook. For my generation and younger this is not bizarre, as we do not seem to thrive with the "tabula raza" therapist/shrink modality. That seems to be an en loco parentis Baby Boomer therapist fantasy....

CatLover said...

I wouldn't friend my therapist because it feels like a boundary violation to me.

Anonymous said...

Sideways, I do not know how old you are or when your high school dropped Latin in favor of modern languages. Tabula rasa and in loco parentis, I believe are the words you were looking for.
Although I am not a boomer, I cannot be friends with anyone I would call a "friend".

Sideways Shrink said...

I am sorry to offend, erudite friend, if I may take the living room liberty of calling you this intimate term. Forgive my spelling lapses. I did not go to a parochial school, a private high school or choose classics as a major at my small liberal arts college. However, like all the students there I was required in freshman year to read Homer, Aeschylus, Herodotus, Sophocles, Euripedes, Hesiod, Thucydides--that was the fall. In the spring we began the Hellenistic period with Cicero, Ovid, Aristotle, Lucretius, Virgil and Aristophanes. So, really spelling was not my focus. But I hope your moment of superiority makes you feel better.

Liz said...

while i consider myself a co-explorer in the therapy process and do what i can to discourage any impulse of a client to elevate to me a higher status, it still seems that this is a boundary to hold. i would not invite a client to a party and friending a client on facebook is only a step or two removed from that.

http://pocketshrink.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

90% now??? Didn't you guys just write a doctor how-to guide for using FB because physicians don't use it?? It would seem your how-to guide for FB was a wild success!

Sideways Shrink said...

"What the gurus know that the seekers do not
is that we are all pilgrims."
~ Sheldon Kopp
the therapist who authored the serious book with the hilarious title, "If You Meet the Buddha in the Road, Kill Him".

jesse said...

To be Anon is fine, but to use it to disguise identity when one is snickering maliciously, as at Sideways above, is outside of the living room. Yuk. That educated Anon undoubtedly studied French. Honi soit qui mal y pense.

Sideways Shrink said...

I've always thought your posts were succinct and spot on and in this case I think you may be correctly poking some fun at me. I studied German and then double majored (as any scholar student would do?) in philosophy and political science and what I learned is that existentialism is French or German was not my bag. That leaves you with Marxism. It made sense at the time....

jesse said...

No no, I wasn't poking fun at you at all. Perhaps my grammar is a bit convoluted, but I was supporting you.

jesse said...

To be even clearer, I was saying that while it is fine to choose to post anonymously, if one is being snide or cutting to others and does it anonymously then there is no honor in that. I am sorry my post was not clear.