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Increasing numbers of doctors and medical students are turning to websites such as Facebook to make friends, chat, and organise social events. These innovations have made some aspects of life easier and are a powerful tool for communication, but they also blur the line between our personal and professional personas. With the veneer of friendship that's offered on these sites, it's all too easy to reveal more information than is appropriate. If this information falls into the wrong hands, problems can arise about your integrity, employment, and fitness to practise medicine.
In a recent study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine , the Facebook profiles of a group of medical students in Florida were scrutinised with the aim of establishing how dangerous Facebook could be in the intersection of personal and professional identities. The study found some profiles publicly displaying photographs of trainee medics drinking to excess, engaging in sexual behaviour, and, in one instance, posing with a dead racoon. Three of the 10 students in the sample had also joined groups on Facebook that could be interpreted as sexist or racist. 1
Whether the private activities of a medical professional have an impact on their ability to practise is debatable, but it cannot be denied that putting private material in such a public arena has the potential to undermine trust in the profession.
Who uses it?
Online social networking in the medical community is a worldwide phenomenon and one that is no longer the sole domain of medical students ( box 1 ). With 90 million active users around the world, 2 it's a fairly safe bet that your colleagues and boss are on there, not to mention many of your patients. You don't need a degree in computer science to go online and see who is using this technology.
Box 1: What is online social networking? 13
These websites offer a virtual space where people can share information and communicate with other people. This is usually in the form of a personal "profile," elements of which other people, "friends," can see.
A social network service focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and activities.
Popular websites include Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Orkut, Hi5, and Friendster.
Revenue is typically gained via...