• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer, November 9, 2010

There's a joke about socialized medicine in here somewhere: After lagging behind other businesses because of patient privacy concerns, doctors are finally starting to use social media to communicate with patients and each other, according to the American Medical News, the trade newspaper of the American Medical Association. Indeed, the trend is significant enough that many hospitals are hiring social media managers to handle all the medical tweeting and Facebook activity.

One of the main tasks of the medical social media managers is training physicians and administrators on how to use social media for professional ends. The AMN cites one social media manager, Dana Lewis of the Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, who has schooled 100 physicians including the hospital CEO in the legal and ethical rules for doctors on social media, the best practices for communicating with patients, and how to use social media to make oneself a "thought leader" in their field.

AMN also pointed to the example of the Jewish Hospital Hand Care Center, where senior specialists live-tweeted during a double-hand transplant surgery in August. Lifespan's Hasbro Children's Hospital used social media including Twitter and Facebook to amplify fund-raising efforts during a radiothon pledge drive.

Not coincidentally, the AMA also released new guidelines for medical professionals using social media at its semi-annual policy-making conference in San Diego. They recommend that doctors use privacy settings to the fullest extent possible on social networking sites; routinely monitor their own Internet presence to ensure that the personal and professional information on their own sites and content posted about them by others is accurate and appropriate; maintain appropriate boundaries of the patient-physician relationship when interacting with patients online and ensure patient privacy and confidentiality is maintained; consider separating personal and professional content online; and recognize that actions online and content posted can negatively affect their reputations among patients and colleagues, and may even have consequences for their medical careers.

According to one survey cited by AMN, 871 U.S. hospitals were using some form of social media as of October 19. New York leads the way with 93 hospitals using social media, followed by 56 hospitals in Michigan, 53 in California, 45 in Illinois, and 45 in Texas. However the national number still represents just a small proportion (15%) of the total 5,800 hospitals in the U.S.