Seattle University Collaborative Projects - International Academy of ...

Social media are exerting evolutionary pressure on doctors. Different subpopulations of doctorsare responding in different ways: (1) The ostrich ignores social media. He continues withbusiness as usual. He sees e-mail as analogous to and uses it like the telephone. He has heard ofFacebook and Twitter, but does not understand and is too busy to learn about them. (2) Thescaredy cat sees risks and runs the other way. She has learned a lot about social media. She hasread all the stories about the doctor who lost her job because of Facebook. She abstains fromsocial media and buys e-reputation insurance to protect herself from online libel. (3) The bullcharges ahead undeterred. He finished his residency US$ 229,132 in debt, started a privatepractice, and uses social media to try to gain a competitive edge. He Skypes with patients inother states and countries, blogs daily about his life as a young doctor, accepts all requests to be"Facebook friends", "follows back" anyone who "follows" him on Twitter, answers questionsfrom patents and others online, and has 54,986 followers and a Klout score of 63. (4) Thejudicious health professional responds the most adaptively, by learning about risks, safeguards,and potential benefits; discussing them with each patient; and introducing social media intothe doctor-patient relationship with, and only with, informed consent. Dr. Hsiung's presentationincludes his actual e-mail, Facebook, and Twitter informed consent forms.HIPAA Privacy Implications of Social MediaStacey Tovino, University of Nevada at Las Vegas (Stacey.Tovino@UNLV.edu)This presentation will examine federal and state statutes and regulations governing healthinformation confidentiality in the context of social media use by physicians, hospitals, and otherindividual and institutional health care providers. More specifically, this presentation will: (1)provide examples of the ways in which individual and institutional health care providers useFaceBook, Twitter, YouTube, and blogs to share information with friends and the general public;(2) provide an overview of federal and state rules governing health information confidentiality,including recent updates to the federal HIPAA Privacy Rule and more stringent state statutes andregulations governing health information confidentiality; (3) identify the ways in which healthcare providers’ use of social media implicates federal and state health information confidentialitystatutes and regulations; (4) address permissible and impermissible uses of social media withrespect to health care providers' online communications with patients and friends as well as theprovision of health care advice and information to the general public; and (5) provide examplesof recent federal and state enforcement actions to illustrate the types of civil, criminal, andadministrative penalties that can be imposed on covered entities and business associates who failto maintain the confidentiality of protected health information. The objectives of thispresentation include familiarizing conference attendees with the United States’ federal and staterules regarding health information confidentiality and the ways in which health care providers’social media use implicates such rules.256