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Social Media and Clinical Practice: What Stays the Same, What Changes, and How to Plan Ahead?

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e-Mental Health

Abstract

While the patient-centered healthcare movement, like traditional medicine movements, aims to deliver quality, affordable, and timely care in a variety of settings, the consumer movement on new technologies is passing it by with emerging technologies and new ways of communicating with others (text, e-mail, Twitter, Facebook). This chapter builds on what we know about e-Mental Health (eMH), technology and communication progress over the past 50 years in maintaining the tenets of “good” quality care, adjusting slightly to telemedicine models, and considering more significant adjustments for use of social media. The areas of challenges include privacy and confidentiality, health and personal practice, having “good” interpersonal/clinical boundaries, awareness of what information is out there about you, and discussing clear expectations about online communication between doctors and patients as part of the informed consent process. Guidelines, strategies, and tips for the clinician are offered.

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Acknowledgments

American Telemedicine Association, Telemental Health Interest Group

Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Keck School of Medicine at USC

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Keck School of Medicine at USC and LAC + USC Medical Center, 2250 Alcazar Street, CSC, Suite 2200, Los Angeles, CA, 90033, USA

    Christopher E. Snowdy MD & Erica Z. Shoemaker MD, MPH

  2. Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Donald M. Hilty MD

  3. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of California, Davis School of Medicine & Health System, 2150 Stockton Boulevard, Sacramento, CA, 95817, USA

    Steven Chan MD, MBA

Authors
  1. Christopher E. Snowdy MD
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  2. Erica Z. Shoemaker MD, MPH
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  3. Steven Chan MD, MBA
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  4. Donald M. Hilty MD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Donald M. Hilty MD .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. The Little Prince Psychiatric Centre, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Davor Mucic

  2. Keck School of Medicine University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA

    Donald M. Hilty

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Snowdy, C.E., Shoemaker, E.Z., Chan, S., Hilty, D.M. (2016). Social Media and Clinical Practice: What Stays the Same, What Changes, and How to Plan Ahead?. In: Mucic, D., Hilty, D. (eds) e-Mental Health. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20852-7_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20852-7_8

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