Law & Ethics

Monday October 4, 2010

Want to Friend Your MD? Go Rural!

This week's episode of WCBA presents a cutting edge look at social media and health care. We led the show with Dr. Jennifer Dyer, a diabetes specialist who texts and 'friends' her hard-to-treat diabetic teens with great results. I then made the point that when it comes to social networking and medicine, Dr. Dyer is the exception and not the rule. Informal surveys suggest that most med students and residents have Facebook accounts but would never friend their patients.

Then, I got this email from Dr. Bruce Geller, a family physician in Meadow Lake, a small town in rural Saskatchewan.

"Thank you for your program on interacting with patients via social networks. I was very interested in the angst the MDs on the program had over this. I am a small town family doctor and socially interacting with patients is a day-to-day reality for me. There is not a day that I do not interact with a current or former patient in a social manner. I have difficulty understanding why this in-person interaction is different from an interaction on Facebook.

Personally, I never refuse a patient request to be a friend on Facebook. I have never had this abused by a patient. Nobody has ever asked for medical advice or revealed any personal information. However, if a patient did ask a personal medical question on Facebook, how would that be different than asking a medical question in the supermarket? Ultimately, I would not feel I was violating that person's privacy, as they would be the one asking me the question about their health in public.

I think the angst over 'friending' patients is not inappropriate. However, I would think it is mostly confined to urban MDs who are accustomed to a large (metaphorical) distance between their professional and personal lives. In rural areas, MDs are much more accustomed to blending the two. We are often friends our patients in the real world and not just the virtual world. Had you interviewed rural and small town doctors, your show would have been different."

Thank you, Dr. Geller, for bringing a rural perspective to the discussion.

Is he right? If you live in a small town, let us know what you think.

Categories: Family Medicine, Law & Ethics, Technology & Innovation

Friday October 1, 2010

Social Medicine

You've heard of social media. What about social medicine?

That's when health professionals blog and tweet and text, not only to each other -- but to their patients. Some even go as far as making friends on Facebook, though there's much debate among health pros about where professional should stop at personal when it comes to social networking with patients.

We pull it all together - the pros and the cons. Give it a listen....and then send us viral by Facebooking and tweeting about it!

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Categories: Communication, Health Professionals, Law & Ethics, Policy & Regulations, Technology & Innovation

Wednesday September 29, 2010

Bonus Interview on Political Activism with Quebec College President

On my way to Sept-Iles to interview the doctors who threatened to resign to stop Terra Ventures from exploring for uranium, I swung my Montreal to chat with Dr. Yves Lamontagne, President of the Quebec College of Physicians. His candid comments on the doctors' threat to resign made it into the Sept-Iles documentary.

But the good doctor and I had a much longer chat about the dos and don'ts of political activism in La Belle Province. You can listen to our bonus conversation by clicking on the audio link below.

Dr. Lamontagne has had a storied medical career. A psychiatrist by training, Dr. Lamontagne has served both the public and the medical profession well in Quebec. He is an author and is also a quite the crooner, with a successful singing career on the side. In October, Dr. Yves Lamontagne steps down from the College to pursue his many other interests.

We wish him a satisfying transition.

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