Talking about controversial issues can be risky.
This article first appeared October 16, 2017 on Medpage Today.
By Joyce Frieden
The American College of Physicians is asking doctors to commit to asking patients about guns and to be willing to add their names to list of colleagues who support this safety conversation initiative.
But do physicians who publicly commit to having this conversation -- or take public stands on other issues -- have to worry about retaliation from opponents, either online or otherwise?
To answer that question, MedPage Today turned to Ron Harman King, who produces the Wired Practice videos featured on MedPage Today.
"Overall, unless you're a celebrity, I'd say the chances of more than a handful of online attacks on most campaign participants are relatively small, and a participant may even find himself or herself gathering new supporters and advocates both online and off-line," said King, owner and CEO of Vanguard Communications, a healthcare marketing firm in Denver, in an email.
"The odds of protesters appearing outside a clinic are small to non-existent, particularly in urban areas," said King. "A clinic might possibly suffer an incidence of graffiti, but I'd be surprised by even that occurrence. If that happens, notify local law enforcement and have the graffiti removed as soon as possible."
He offered physicians these tips for staying safe -- online and elsewhere -- while discussing controversial issues:
- If you have a personal Facebook account, adjust your settings so that only people you've accepted as Facebook friends can see posts. If an "internet troll" posts an attack, he and all his friends will see the post, but no one else can. This will limit the exposure of any aggressive comments.
- Resist debating anyone on social media, especially if your practice has what's called a Facebook Page, with a capital P, which is reserved for businesses and doesn't have the control that personal Facebook pages offer. Instead, consider drafting -- and having on hand, ready to post -- a boilerplate statement explaining your position on this topic, for example, as a matter of public health and professional ethical obligations, not as a position against gun ownership rights and constitutional freedoms. This could be used as a calm, reasoned response if needed.
- At the merest hint of any physical threat to a physician, staff, or patients, contact police immediately. "Having once been a police reporter for a big city newspaper, I can vouch for the effectiveness of some law enforcement agencies and detectives at identifying and safeguarding against troublemakers to be taken seriously," King said. "They often already know who they are."
And finally, "Grow as thick skin as a possible," he advised. "Throughout the ages, scientists from Galileo to Jonas Salk have taken heat for speaking their scientifically based beliefs. Sometimes it comes with the territory of standing up for what one believes is in humanity's best interests."