Should you Facebook friend your doctor? A recent Boston Globe article explores the answer to this question, largely as an ethical information-sharing issue. But patients friending doctors and vice versa is more than a moral dilemma—it's a public relations one.
Seeing as how I'm a millennial and a big proponent of Twitter, WordPress, Facebook, instant messaging, or any other online information-sharing media, you may think I'd be in favor of unchecked doctor-patient friending. Well, you'd be wrong. I don't want to see photos of my doctor's Wednesday night bowling league any more than I want her to see my status updates about how much I'm dreading going to the doctor's. Imagine posting a WebMD link about some affliction you've self-diagnosed yourself with only to have your physician comment to tell you to book an appointment? And what if your doctor writes a status about how much they dislike their job or organization. Some things are just better left unshared.
That's not to say, however, that social media can't be used to further the doctor-patient relationship—so long as there are certain boundaries. Most healthcare marketers agree that social media is beneficial to the marketing department's goals—72% said they viewed social and new media as having positive and slightly positive impact on their organization's marketing function in the next three years, according to the 2010 HealthLeaders Media Industry Survey—and it can be helpful to physicians' personal brands, as well.
Sticking with the Facebook example, doctors who want to connect with patients on the 400 million-strong social networking site can do so in a more professional manner by creating a fan page or a separate professional page. This allows for some interaction without crossing any personal boundaries. Physicians can share health tips, any news about their practice or department, and field general health questions. This allows patients who want to feel more connected with their doctor to keep in touch without stumbling into a social gray area.
A doctor who uses Facebook to his advantage is Dr. Brian Boxer Wachler, a Los Angeles-area ophthalmologist. He uses his fan pages to post photos of him and his family, share news releases about his practice, and share unrelated articles that he thinks his fans may find interesting, such as an informational piece about the new iPad. By doing this, he keeps a discourse going with his patients, which helps to keep his practice on their minds. You can bet the next time his Facebook fans have an eye problem they won't say, "Who's my ophthalmologist again?"
Doctors can also use Twitter to communicate with patients and potential patients—either in addition to or in place of a Facebook account. He or she can disseminate the same information they would on Facebook, but can interact with anyone on the Twitterverse, whereas on Facebook one is limited to interacting with friends or fans.
Dr. Sean Khozin, an internist and founding member of Hello Health, concierge practice based in Brooklyn that utilizes e-mail, instant messaging, and video chat for care coordination, tweets health tidbits and links to articles that he thinks is 394 followers may find interesting.
"We can use social media to coordinate care with patients and with different specialists, all using the same platform," he told the New York Times. "I can monitor my patients, and they can also use these tools to become empowered through a better understanding of their own disease state and active engagement."
He's right—and social media is going to increasingly become a useful tool in the doctor-patient communication virtual toolkit. This is why it's so important that the marketing and public relations teams get involved early to set up standards and guidelines for interacting with patients online. Some organizations' first instinct will be to ban it altogether, but that a futile battle against the inevitable. So long as physicians know the professional limits and best practices that are expected of them, they can have meaningful relationships with patients online and cultivate patient loyalty. And maybe play a little Farmville.
Marianne Aiello is a contributing writer at HealthLeaders Media.