Facebook, Twitter, RSS, etc. may have changed the way I communicate, but in some arenas, the mere acknowledgement of social media still moves at a glacial pace. Naturally, I was surprised to see that the local hospitals’ notice boards had been outfitted with colourful new posters. Privacy tips, they were entitled.
The first one I came across went something like this:
Privacy Tip #14
Post wisely…
Cut detail when posting on Facebook, Twitter, or blogs.
Patients can be recognized without their names.
The social media triad grabbed my attention. After all, the other tips were well established truisms on shredding patient information at the end of day and not gossiping about cases in the cafeteria. This was addressing social media explicitly, which to me is an acknowledgement that the institutions are aware of the new technologies and feel some kind of need to rein in early adopters. An important step forward, I think, despite the not-exactly-rah-rah tone, because a time without rules is an exciting time, but it’s also a dangerous time.
I don’t need to tell you why privacy is one of the major minefields in medicine 2.0.
It’s clear that lines need to be drawn, though no one knows quite where. Many health care bloggers post with excellent objectives: to share their love of medicine, to discuss new technology, to give a public voice to physicians in the health care reform debate – in general, to give participatory power to the reader in the form of shared information. But who are the readers and what will they do with the information? Really, the only control the blogger has over the spread is to censor himself in the first place.
(more…)
