So, I was listening to a CBC radio program White Coat, Black Art which is a weekly program about medicine from the viewpoint of doctors. This week’s program reviewed the role of social networking on the doctor patient relationship.
This prompted me to think a bit more about the role Social Networking should or should not play in the relationship of a patient and physician. When I look at my use of handheld computing, I am finding that I use my smartphone in almost every patient encounter. I use the phone to look up answers to my patient related questions, and I use it to send consults all the time to many local physicians and ancillary medical folks (i.e. PT, OT, etc). I also use e-mail to communicate with patients, if they wish, to keep up with patients when they are away from the local area (as many folks are who work in the Alberta Oil Fields). Is it really that big a step to move forward to communicating via FaceBook direct message?
Many of my patients enjoy the fact that I have a website (www.docgrimes.com) where they can access information that I find valuable. Some of them have commented that they appreciate it that I have a place where they can go and get answers that they feel that I have pre-screened for value. A few have commented on the fact that I post Tweets to the site of things I find fascinating or useful, it provides some insight into the way in which I look at some of the non-patient aspects of medicine. All of them like the ability to look at my schedule of when I am going to be in clinic seeing folks, and when I am in the walk-in clinic. All of this seems pretty straight forward.
I do have a FaceBook page for my clinic Doc Grimes Clinic, but I limit some of the things that can occur on the site. It really reflects (quiet literally) the content of the website albeit a little late. There is no real way to contact me through FaceBook, but via my page you can send me feedback. I know that some folks, especially teens and young adults, use FaceBook to communicate. What do you think? Should your physician be available via FaceBook? Should they be available through Twitter or E-mail? How about via SMS or Text?
I admit that I am a little fuzzy about what is to much or not enough availability, after all, I live in a small town, people stop by my house when I am out working. Everyone already knows what I am doing (building a barn, tilling the new garden, buying a horse etc) so it is not like I am losing any more privacy, just changing my accessibility. Let me know what you think.
Posts
