Lack of clear guidance on how professionals should conduct themselves on social networking sites has caused big problems for a lot of people, with the latest being US doctors. Research in the Journal of the American Medical Association published last week found one in ten reports of unprofessional content posted by student doctors contained violations of patient confidentiality. Many examples contained enough clinical detail that patients could potentially be identified. The problem is, few medical schools have policies on social networking. While this is no excuse, it only serves to show how important it is to be clear about what can and cannot be discussed online – otherwise this sort of thing is inevitable.
It’s obvious social media is ahead of policy. It is fast moving, but it’s been around for a good few years now and it’s really important that people get why it’s not okay to treat an online conversation just like a private chat with friends. No online communication is confidential. The simple matter is, you have to be ‘transparent’ no matter what you do.
Interestingly, the FDA is currently consulting the public on opinions for online pharma communications. By the end of the year, we will (with any luck) have clear guidance on some key topics. These include responsibility for online communications (eg what is and isn’t counted as ‘their problem’), when does a company have to correct misinformation and when do companies have to report adverse events. This last one is a real tough cookie – current legal restrictions prevent a lot of online pharma activity because even by ‘listening in’ on the conversations, you could have to then act on what you hear. Being a passive observer is just not an option.
No doubt many of the doctors expelled from their medical schools deserved it (sorry, but let’s not pretend it’s okay – patient confidentiality is a big deal!). The healthcare community and the pharma companies in particular need the kind of clear guidance that is being promising in order to avoid any untoward incidents on either side of the fence. With that, let’s just hope we can graduate from this current ‘training camp’ where companies are doing a little gradually, into a state where it’s clear what can and cannot be done and we can actually just get on with communicating appropriately with online audiences.
Tags: FDA, Journal of the American Medical Association, transparency