Can Healthcare ever adapt to new social media?

There have been several interesting articles about the role social media has on healthcare. Most of the time the analysis focuses on the lack of penetration. I think social media is encountering a blockade within healthcare.

Medic 999, a popular doctor's blog in Britian, is closing shop. He writes,

"Some of the bloggers out here may want to continue the fight, and maybe I am being a coward, but I dont want to risk getting into a position where I cannot provide for my family and can no longer do the job that I love so much."

The issue of privacy for doctors is always been a complex subject. How much information can doctors share with the world about their patients or their practice?

I know that many individuals have faith in EHR and EMR to transform the healthcare industry. I am one of those people, but the battle will be over privacy. Just like the backlash from Facebook, healthcare will continue to face the issue of how to share information.

I am of the persuasion that individuals need to control their information better. The back lash against Facebook style exposure has been around the idea of "creeping", where people follow your every footsteps, and potential harm to your professional image by overexposure. The fact of the matter is that people who are Facebook addicts share way to much information and the risk is that you will loose control of your identity by being associated with Facebook addicts. Social media addicts are people who have no filter and no reconciliation of the consequences of over-sharing.

This relates to healthcare because the "Facebook effect" of oversharing might make inroads into healthcare. It is possible that individuals become looser with their information. The place to start is not social media but with EHR. Some libertarian minded individuals might be up in arms about this gradual slide, but the slippery slope argument is often considered a informal fallacy. The main problem with healthcare is the lack of information and complexity. EHR does have the potential to make care for efficient and effective, but it will rub against people's libertarian sensibilities about their health.

Social media can provide a way to education the general populus but is really not a way to revolutionize healthcare. The only reason I write is to share with everyone my experiences within the healthcare industry. I think social media provides a avenue to share information but is a huge liability for doctors. In the era of litigation, a new action is out lawed every week in the US, doctors need to be careful about social media and the "Facebook effect". Unless patients become more free with their information, social media is a lawsuit waiting to happen.