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. 2013 Aug 14;310(6):581-2.
doi: 10.1001/jama.2013.8238.

Social media and physicians' online identity crisis

Matthew DeCamp  1 , Thomas W Koenig, Margaret S Chisolm
Affiliations

Social media and physicians' online identity crisis

Matthew DeCamp et al. JAMA. .

Abstract

Physicians are increasingly counted among Face-book’s 1 billion users and Twitter’s 500 million members. Beyond these social media platforms, other innovative social media tools are being used in medical practice, including for online consultation, in the conduct of clinical research, and in medical school curricula. Social media content is brief, characterized as “many-to-many” communication, and able to spread rapidly across the Internet beyond a person’s control. These and other features of social media create new dimensions to traditional ethical issues, particularly around maintaining appropriate boundaries between physicians and patients.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest Disclosures: All authors have completed and submitted the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest and none were reported.

Comment in

  • Online identities of physicians.
    Crotty BH, Mostaghimi A, Arora VM. Crotty BH, et al. JAMA. 2013 Dec 18;310(23):2566-7. doi: 10.1001/jama.2013.282144. JAMA. 2013. PMID: 24346998 No abstract available.
  • Online identities of physicians--reply.
    DeCamp M, Koenig TW, Chisolm MS. DeCamp M, et al. JAMA. 2013 Dec 18;310(23):2567-8. doi: 10.1001/jama.2013.282167. JAMA. 2013. PMID: 24346999 No abstract available.

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