Social media part 2: Navigating the evolving landscape for doctors

For more than a decade, whenever I lectured medical students or physicians about the professional use of social media, X/Twitter was always the platform that I singled out as the best tool for them to use.That’s no longer the case.Ever since COVID-19 and the purchase of Twitter/X by Elon Musk, the platform has become an ever-more biased and dysfunctional tool that can no longer be used to reliably gather and share evidence-based medical information.While I would argue physicians can still realize many benefits from using social media appropriately, the situation has become far more nuanced and guidance for medical students and physicians is needed more than ever.When it comes to social media and medicine, a quote from almost a decade ago by Dr. Hartley Stern, former CEO of the Canadian Medical Protective Association stands out: “Whether physicians are active on social media or not, an understanding of social media and its potential implications on their professional lives is essential.”Read: CPSA reacts to Danielle Smith’s plan to limit regulators’ ability to ‘control personal opinions’In the early days of physician involvement on social media, advocates for using these platforms made the point that doctors should be on social media because that is where their patients were. That remains as true if not truer than ever.However, in recent years and especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, social media platforms such as X/Twitter, Facebook, TikTok and Threads have become swamps of mis- and dis-information where the voices for physicians and others trying to promote evidence-based medical advice are lost, if not actively belittled and condemned.While there are dedicated Canadian physicians who continue to post or curate useful information on Twitter/X, it’s no wonder that in such an environment the number of physicians using social media for professional purposes remains a tiny minority.Because patients are using social media daily and are often using it as their primary source of news and medical information, I would argue physicians should try and be aware of what those patients are seeing and hearing. For those with the time and fortitude to have a professional presence on social media, today they are needed more than ever.As former CMA president Dr. Katharine Smart said a couple of years ago: “Over fiove million Canadians don’t have access to a family care physician, which has always been that foundational relationship that people have had and that source of trusted health information. We’ve got declining access to experts (but) increasing access to information and we know that on social media health information is often poor. We have to reimagine ourselves a bit as physicians and what our role is in terms of stepping into the public to share information and to counterbalance misinformation.”Even those who are unwilling to take a public stance on social media should be aware what is being said on those platforms.Lurking—having a social media account but just using it to observe what others are saying—is a perfectly acceptable way of using social media. In an era where bots, spam accounts and AI-generated fakes on social media are the norm, critically observing and not directly interacting holds much appeal.Social media platforms are no more than communications tools and the guidance for using them professionally as physicians remains the same as for other, more traditional means of communications. As Dr. Farris Timimi, then medical director of the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media wrote so pithily in 2012: “Don’t lie, don’t pry, don’t cheat, can’t delete, don’t steal. Don’t reveal.”In 2013, when Ann Fuller—now chief communications officer for Queensway Carleton Hospital—and I first gave an orientation lecture to first year uOttawa medical students about the professional use of social media we talked about how they could benefit from using the platforms. Here’s what we said:Why consider using social mediaTo stay informedAs a learning tool in medical educationCommunicate (engage) with peers and patientsDisseminate informationAdvocate for/against somethingTo help get a jobTo deliver clinical careBecause if you decide not to use social media, your decision should be based on sound knowledge about what you are choosing not to useWith one caveat I would argue these points remain just as valid today. That caveat is that if you are a physician and you want to advocate on a particularly sensitive political issue you need to be prepared for a degree of criticism and abuse that may be detrimental to your wellbeing and could potentially damage your professional career. I say this having seen the fallout from physicians speaking out on the current situation in the Middle East.And while physicians continue to have numerous channels for networking with each other, what the degradation of Twitter/X has cost them is a platform where physicians could engage meaningfully with patients and their advocates as well as other health care professionals and health policy experts. This can still be done but it now takes much more time and effort.Social media platforms are a reality of today’s society. New platforms such as Bluesky and Mastodon provide new opportunities for medical students and physicians to learn and network. Despite their drawbacks, established platforms such as Instagram and YouTube and communities on Facebook provide similar opportunities for those with the desire and knowledge to use them effectively.For a busy practicing physician, professional use of social media may no longer be worth the time or effort I once felt it was. But for physician leaders and prospective leaders I would argue that social media bring a dimension to discussions about the health care environment that cannot be ignored.Pat Rich is a Canadian health journalist and former editor of the Medical Post. This item originally appeared on his website.

Social media part 2: Navigating the evolving landscape for doctors

Register for free access or login.

Related Topics