Can I “Friend” My Therapist? The Ethics of Social Media Use in Health Care

PsycCRITIQUES ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 59 (29) ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Social Media Use

Social Media Use Among Health Care Providers: 40 Years

CHEST Journal ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 149 (4) ◽  
pp. A234
Author(s):  
Lauren Quisenberry ◽  
Zoya Surani ◽  
Saherish Surani ◽  
Sivakumar Sudhakaran ◽  
Salim Surani
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Social Media Use

scholarly journals Social Media Insights Into US Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Longitudinal Analysis of Twitter Data

10.2196/21418 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (12) ◽  
pp. e21418
Author(s):  
Danny Valdez ◽  
Marijn ten Thij ◽  
Krishna Bathina ◽  
Lauren A Rutter ◽  
Johan Bollen
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Media Use ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
At Home

Background The COVID-19 pandemic led to unprecedented mitigation efforts that disrupted the daily lives of millions. Beyond the general health repercussions of the pandemic itself, these measures also present a challenge to the world’s mental health and health care systems. Considering that traditional survey methods are time-consuming and expensive, we need timely and proactive data sources to respond to the rapidly evolving effects of health policy on our population’s mental health. Many people in the United States now use social media platforms such as Twitter to express the most minute details of their daily lives and social relations. This behavior is expected to increase during the COVID-19 pandemic, rendering social media data a rich field to understand personal well-being. Objective This study aims to answer three research questions: (1) What themes emerge from a corpus of US tweets about COVID-19? (2) To what extent did social media use increase during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic? and (3) Does sentiment change in response to the COVID-19 pandemic? Methods We analyzed 86,581,237 public domain English language US tweets collected from an open-access public repository in three steps. First, we characterized the evolution of hashtags over time using latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) topic modeling. Second, we increased the granularity of this analysis by downloading Twitter timelines of a large cohort of individuals (n=354,738) in 20 major US cities to assess changes in social media use. Finally, using this timeline data, we examined collective shifts in public mood in relation to evolving pandemic news cycles by analyzing the average daily sentiment of all timeline tweets with the Valence Aware Dictionary and Sentiment Reasoner (VADER) tool. Results LDA topics generated in the early months of the data set corresponded to major COVID-19–specific events. However, as state and municipal governments began issuing stay-at-home orders, latent themes shifted toward US-related lifestyle changes rather than global pandemic-related events. Social media volume also increased significantly, peaking during stay-at-home mandates. Finally, VADER sentiment analysis scores of user timelines were initially high and stable but decreased significantly, and continuously, by late March. Conclusions Our findings underscore the negative effects of the pandemic on overall population sentiment. Increased use rates suggest that, for some, social media may be a coping mechanism to combat feelings of isolation related to long-term social distancing. However, in light of the documented negative effect of heavy social media use on mental health, social media may further exacerbate negative feelings in the long-term for many individuals. Thus, considering the overburdened US mental health care structure, these findings have important implications for ongoing mitigation efforts.

scholarly journals Professionalism in a Digital Age: Opportunities and Considerations for Using Social Media in Health Care

2015 ◽  
Vol 95 (3) ◽  
pp. 406-414 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kendra Gagnon ◽  
Carla Sabus
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Online Communication ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Online Information ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
Remarkable Change

Since the beginning of the millennium, there has been a remarkable change in how people access and share information. Much of this information is user-generated content found on social media sites. As digital technologies and social media continue to expand, health care providers must adapt their professional communication to meet the expectations and needs of consumers. This adaptation may include communication on social media sites. However, many health care providers express concerns that professional social media use, particularly interactions with patients, is ethically problematic. Social media engagement does not create ethical dissonance if best practices are observed and online communication adheres to terms of service, professional standards, and organizational policy. A well-executed social media presence provides health care providers, including physical therapists, the opportunity—and perhaps a professional obligation—to use social media sites to share or create credible health care information, filling a consumer void for high-quality online information on fitness, wellness, and rehabilitation. This perspective article provides a broad review of the emergence of social media in society and health care, explores policy implications of organizational adoption of health care social media, and proposes individual opportunities and guidelines for social media use by the physical therapy professional.

scholarly journals Social Media and Health Care (Part II): Narrative Review of Social Media Use by Patients (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deema Farsi ◽  
Hector R Martinez-Menchaca ◽  
Mohammad Ahmed ◽  
Nada Farsi
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Peer Support ◽  
Media Use ◽  
The United States ◽  
Narrative Review ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
The Public ◽  
Use Of Social Media

BACKGROUND People are now connected in a borderless web-based world. The modern public, especially the younger generation, relies heavily on the internet as the main source of health-related information. In health care, patients can use social media for more tailored uses such as telemedicine, finding a provider, and for peer support. OBJECTIVE The aim of this narrative review is to discuss how social media has been used in the health care industry from the perspective of patients and describe the main issues surrounding its use in health care. METHODS Between March and June 2020, a review of the literature was conducted on PubMed, Google Scholar, and Web of Science for English studies that were published since 2007 and discussed the use of social media in health care. In addition to only English publications that discussed the use of social media by patients, publications pertaining to ethical and legal considerations in the use of social media were included. The studies were then categorized as <i>health information</i>, <i>telemedicine</i>, <i>finding a health care provider</i>, <i>peer support and sharing experiences</i>, and <i>influencing positive health behavior</i>. In addition, two more sections were added to the review: <i>issues pertaining to social media use in health care</i> and <i>ethical considerations</i>. RESULTS Initially, 75 studies were included. As the study proceeded, more studies were included, and a total of 91 studies were reviewed, complemented by 1 textbook chapter and 13 web references. Approximately half of the studies were reviews. The first study was published in 2009, and the last was published in 2021, with more than half of the studies published in the last 5 years. The studies were mostly from the United States (n=40), followed by Europe (n=13), and the least from India (n=1). WhatsApp or WeChat was the most investigated social media platform. CONCLUSIONS Social media can be used by the public and patients to improve their health and knowledge. However, due diligence must be practiced to assess the credibility of the information obtained and its source. Health care providers, patients, and the public need not forget the risks associated with the use of social media. The limitations and shortcomings of the use of social media by patients should be understood.

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