Abstract
Social media is a common method of communication in people’s personal lives and professional settings. Gallagher et al. (2016) recommended, “it is time for genetic counselors to embrace social media as a means of communicating with patients or other healthcare professionals.” Full members of the National Society of Genetic Counselors (NSGC) in the USA and Canada and genetics patients in Cleveland, OH, were surveyed to determine interest in using social media for patient-provider interactions. Both cohorts indicated that patient privacy and confidentiality would be a concern; however, survey results indicated patients would be interested in using social media to receive general information about genetic counseling and to learn about genetics services. Genetic counselors indicated privacy issues were not concerning if social media were to be used in this capacity. The majority of genetic counselor participants (88.7%) indicated they would welcome national guidelines for patient-provider social media use. Data from this study demonstrated that sharing what to expect at a genetic counseling appointment, defining genetic counseling, and announcing community outreach events are possible ways genetic counselors could utilize social media to communicate with and educate patients.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
American Medical Association (2010). Report of the Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs: professionalism in the use of social media. Retrieved from http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/physician-resources/medical-ethics/code-medical-ethics/opinion9124.page.
Bosslet, G. T., Torke, A. M., Hickman, S. E., Terry, C. L., & Helft, P. R. (2011). The patient-doctor relationship and online social networks: results of a national survey. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 26(10), 1168–1174. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-011-1761-2.
Boucher, J. L. (2010). Technology and patient–provider interactions: improving quality of care, but is it improving communication and collaboration? Diabetes Spectrum, 23(23), 142–144.
Chretien, K., & Kind, T. (2013). Social media and clinical care: ethical, professional, and social implications. Circulation, 127, 1413–1421. https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.112.128017.
Cohen, Heidi (2011). 30 social media definitions. Retrieved from http://heidicohen.com/social-media-definition/.
Duggan, M. and Brenner, J. (2013). The demographics of social media users—2012. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/02/14/the-demographics-of-social-media-users-2012/.
Fisher, J., & Clayton, M. (2012). Who gives a tweet: assessing patients’ interest in the use of social media for health care. Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing, 9(2), 200–208. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-6787.2012.00243.
Gallagher, L., McCuaig, J., Benoit, L., & Davies, C. (2016). It’s time for the genetic counseling profession to embrace social media. Journal of Genetic Counseling, 25, 1338–1341. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10897-016-9950-0.
Greenwood, S., Perrin, A, and Duggan, M. (2016). Social media update 2016. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/11/11/social-media-update-2016/.
Hawn, C. (2009). Take two aspirin and tweet me in the morning: how Twitter, Facebook, and other social media are reshaping health care. Health Affairs, 28(2), 361–368. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.28.2.361.
McKee, R. (2013). Ethical issues in using social media for health and health care research. Health Policy, 110(2–3), 298–301. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthpol.2013.02.006.
National Society of Genetic Counselors (2014). 2014 Professional status survey. Retrieved from: http://nsgc.org/p/cm/ld/fid=68.
National Society of Genetic Counselors (2015). Social media toolkit. Retrieved from: https://www.nsgc.org/p/do/sd/topic=479&sid=3630.
O’Keeffe, G. S., Clarke-Pearson, K., & Council on Communications and Media. (2011). The impact of social media on children, adolescents, and families. Pediatrics, 127(4), 800–804.
Prasad, B. (2013). Social media, health care, and social networking. Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, 77(3), 492–495.
Rozental, T. D., George, T. M., & Chacko, A. (2010). Social networking among upper extremity patients. Journal of Hand Surgery, 35A, 819–823. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhsa.2009.12.043.
Steele, R. (2011). Social media, mobile devices and sensors: Categorizing new techniques for health communication. Paper presented at the Fifth International Conference on Sensing Technology. Palmerston North: Massey University.
von Muhlen, M., & Ohno-Machado, L. (2012). Reviewing social media use by clinicians. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 19, 777–781. https://doi.org/10.1136/amiajnl-2012-000990.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Jane Engelberg Memorial Fellowship Student Research Award, provided by the Engelberg Foundation to the National Society of Genetic Counselors, Inc. This study was performed in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Science.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
Rebekah Moore, Anne Matthews, and Leslie Cohen declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Human Studies and Informed Consent
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Moore, R.A., Matthews, A.L. & Cohen, L. How Might the Genetics Profession Better Utilize Social Media. J Genet Counsel 27, 493–504 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10897-018-0215-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10897-018-0215-y