Social Media Use in Rehabilitation Medicine

by Kathy Plavnik, DO

Photo by Cristian Dina from Pexels

Social media has become a growing hot topic in the medical community. Whether it is Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, or the new Tik Tok, these are platforms where physicians are beginning to share both their personal journey in medicine and educating the population on medical topics related to their fields. Although the online community is an easy way to share information to thousands of individuals with just one click, there are many risks associated with social media use as a medical professional including breaching patient trust and confidentiality. In response to the increased use of the internet, the American College of Physicians (ACP) has published guidelines with detailed information for medical professionals (1). This article will review the advantages and disadvantages of social media use as it relates to rehabilitation physicians.

Patient Education

Social media has become a source of patient access to medical resources when provided by educated professionals. Medical centers and hospital organizations have started utilizing the power of social media to spread information about health and wellbeing in their local areas. For example, Mayo Clinic has established a Center for Social Media dedicated to establishing an online presence on multiple platforms (Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube) and providing health professional-based podcasts and blog posts (2). The hope is that the more physicians utilize social media to distribute evidence-based information, the more they can counter inaccurate information distributed online. In one study by Workewych et al, 7483 Twitter tweets related to traumatic brain injuries in sports were collected and analyzed. In order of popularity, the tweets consisted of subjective opinions (26%), instances of injury (22%), education (21%), policy and rules (16%), and medical (15%) (3). In addition, the study found misinformation regarding return to play, which can be countered by physical medicine and rehabilitation physicians sharing their knowledge and expertise on the social media platform.

Community

Patients may use social media to connect with others affected by similar conditions and build a community of support for one another. For example, the hashtag #StrokeSurvivor has 165,000 public posts of individuals sharing their journeys from stroke to recovery. This allows individuals suffering through similar obstacles to share with one another and provide support during one of the most vulnerable times in their life. Physiatrists help improve patient functional recovery and enhance their quality of life by participating in ADLs and iADLs, which can include social media use. In a study by Brunner et al., rehabilitation professionals agreed that encouraging patients to return to their pre-injury use of social media has benefits including reduced social isolation however harbors the risk of vulnerability (4). Social media has the potential to provide patients and physicians with a community of familiarity and comfort with appropriate use.

Marketing

Social media engagement can help to build a successful practice if used efficiently. According to a study done in 2011, hospitals use social media to target a general audience, provide content about the organization, announce news and events, further public relations and promote health (5). As many patients search for a provider online before scheduling an appointment, social media can be beneficial for physicians who are able to market themselves online to a large audience (6).

Confidentiality

When choosing to utilize social media, all healthcare professionals should use extreme caution while posting pictures or stories to ensure that there is absolutely no personal health information (PHI) anywhere. In addition, physicians should avoid sharing personal opinions that have not been proven by science or on controversial topics that may negatively impact others. A national survey of state medical boards indicated that the most common violations include inappropriate patient communication online, use of the Internet for inappropriate practice, and online misrepresentation of credentials (7). Most of these violations were reported by patients, their families, or other physicians in the community. Physicians must understand that sharing events even without explicit patient identifiers, such as “today we saw a patient that fell onto the train track and had to have their leg amputated” can still lead to a breach of confidentiality. If someone’s friend fell onto the train track that day and knows the hospital where they are working, the connection can be made and their personal information would be exposed. Violating the HIPPA Act and failing to adhere to institutional policies can lead to the loss of both a job and a medical license.

Conclusion

While social media has a vast array of potential benefits for both physicians and patients, rehabilitation health care providers must be cautious in avoiding breaches of confidentiality while utilizing social media in their practice.

1. Farnan JM, Snyder Sulmasy L, Worster BK, Chaudhry HJ, Rhyne JA, Arora VM (2013) American College of Physicians Ethics, Professionalism and Human Rights Committee; American College of Physicians Council of Associates; Federation of State Medical Boards Special Committee on Ethics and Professionalism*. Online medical professionalism: patient and public relationships: policy statement from the American College of Physicians and the Federation of State Medical Boards. Ann Intern Med 158(8):620–627
2. George DR, Rovniak LS, Kraschnewski JL. Dangers and opportunities for social media in medicine. Clin Obstet Gynecol. 2013 Sep;56(3):453–462
3. Workewych AM, Ciuffetelli MM, Jing R, Zhang S, Topolovec-Vranic J, Cusimano MD. Twitter and traumatic brain injury: A content and sentiment analysis of tweets pertaining to sport-related brain injury. SAGE Open Med 2017 Aug;5:2050312117720057
4. Brunner M, Togher L, Palmer S, Dann S, Hemsley B. Rehabilitation Professionals’ Views on Social Media Use in Traumatic Brain Injury Rehabilitation: Gatekeepers to Participation. Disabil Rehabil. 2019 Nov 7:1–10. doi: 10.1080/09638288.2019.1685604.
5. Thaker SI, Nowacki AS, Mehta NB, Edwards AR. How U.S. Hospitals Use Social Media. Ann of Intern Med. 2011;154:707–8
6. Bernstein KI, Promislow S, Carr R, et al. Information needs and preferences of recently diagnosed patients with inflammatory bowel disease. Inflamm Bowel Dis. 2011; 17:590–8
7. Greysen SR, Chretien KC, Kind T, Young A, Gross CP. Physician violations of online professionalism and disciplinary actions: a national survey of state medical boards. JAMA. 2012;307(11):1141–1142.

Kathy Plavnik, DO is a PGY-4 in PM&R and Chief Resident at NYU Rusk Rehabilitation.