FOAMed/Social Media.Dr. Ben Balogun

ST5 Emergency Medicine/FOAM Fellow

July 2017

FOAMed - Introduction

If you want to know how we practiced medicine 5 years ago, read a textbook.

If you want to know how we practiced medicine 2 years ago, read a journal.

If you want to know how we practice medicine now, go to a (good) conference.

If you want to know how we will practice medicine in the future, listen in the hallways and use FOAM.

- From International EM Education Efforts & E-Learning by Joe Lex 2012

From LIFL

What is FOAMed – The Origin?

• Free Open Access Meducation or Medical Education

• ?Started in 2012

• Free for users

• Easily Accessible

• Free to share

• Independent of platform or media

How does it work?

ETHOS(free & Open)

RESOURCES

COMMUNITY(Collaborators, Contributors &

Consumers)

FOAM

Why FOAM?

FOAM=

SOCIAL MEDIA

It’s So Much More!

FOAM platforms

Photographs

A Few Good FOAMs

What is Social Media?

Social media refers to any online

communication channel which allows the user to find and interact with a

community. (BMA)

Main examples include:

Social Media Use in Healthcare Setting: Benefits

• Build your professional network

• Share ideas and information

• Offer and access professional and peer support

• Campaign on issues important to you

• Follow debates and developments around your work

Source: BMA

Social Media Use in Healthcare Setting: BMA Guidelines

• Main advice

• Follow GMC guidelines

• Be aware privacy and confidentiality can never be guaranteed!

• Don’t say or reveal anything that you wouldn’t be happy to see in the press!

Several members of a private Facebook group for junior doctors – set up to discuss the 2015/16 contract dispute – found themselves the subject of unwanted media attention. Some members of the press gained access to the group and used it to trawl for information about committee representatives, including confidential discussions between them and information about their private lives.

Source: BMA Social Media Practical guidance and best practice.

Social Media Use: Tips from MDU

• Be professional at all times.

• Maintain appropriate professional boundaries.

• Respect patient confidentiality.

• Take care about any personal postings of text or images on your own site or other sites.

• Optimise the privacy settings on any personal social media site you use.

• Avoid any dialogue with a patient through social media sites.

• ABOVE ALL: Abide by GMC Guidance!

• Good Medical Practice1

• Confidentiality: good practice in handling patient information2

• Follow guidance on prescribing3

• Follow your organisation’s policy on social media

• Maintaining boundaries

• Privacy

• Anonymity

• Conflicts of interest

Social Media Use in Healthcare Setting: GMC Guidelines

1. http://www.gmc-uk.org/guidance/good_medical_practice.asp2. http://www.gmc-uk.org/guidance/ethical_guidance/confidentiality.asp3. http://www.gmc-uk.org/Prescribing_guidance.pdf_59055247.pdf

Summary of GMC guidelines re Social Media

The GMC has made it clear thatthe standards expected of doctorsdo not change because they are

communicating through social media1.

1. GMC, Doctors’ use of social media(2013), www.gmc-uk.org

NHS England: Principles for Participating in Online Activities

1. Know and follow NHS England’s ‘Standards of Business Conduct’.

2. Responsibility for your Publication

3. Identify yourself

4. Be aware of your participants

5. Disclaimers

6. Respect Copyright

7. Confidentiality

8. Attack and Abuse

9. Proprietary information

10. Partners and Suppliers

11. Respect your audience

12. Conflicts of interest

13. Liaise with Media Team

14. Altering posts

15. Whistleblowing

Source: NHS England/Digital Communication Team- Social Media and attributed digital content policy. Document no: PAT 1001, versno: 1.02. Issued date April 2016, Review date April 2018

Information Governance & Social Media – The Dilemma.

Current Reality

A recent study of 2,107 doctors across five hospital sites found that 98.9% own a smartphone, and just over a third use web-based messaging apps to send clinical information1.

1. http://innovations.bmj.com/content/1/4/174

Why are doctors turning to Social Media?

• Responding to the inadequacy of what the NHS is providing

• Trying to find better ways to provide care.

• Archaic NHS - slow at adopting digital sharing systems.

• Examples• "It can also be really helpful for junior clinicians

to communicate with senior colleagues - send images of X-rays and get quick advice on the best course of action”.

• Croydon Tram Crash in November 2016, WhatsApp allowed doctors at the scene to communicate with colleagues at the nearby hospital about what patient injuries to expect.

Recent National Publications on Social Media Use by Doctors - 1

Should doctors use WhatsApp to bypass archaic NHS tech? By Georgina Gould, Junior Doctor.

Published in The Guardian, June 2017.

NHS England’s Comment:

“Whatsapp should NEVER be used for the sending of information in the professional healthcare environment”.

Recent National Publications on Social Media Use by Doctors - 2

Use of WhatsApp in NHS 'widespread', say doctors. By Jane Wakefield, Technology Reporter BBC.

Published 6 July 2017.

NHS England’s Guidelines – Pagers & Fax machines.According to the guidelines, use of WhatsApp is strictly banned for the purposes of sending patient data.

Doctors are required to contact each other by Pager or Fax

To use or not to use?

• Dr Felix Jackson, who runs MedCrowd, a digital messaging service for health workers, told the BBC he saw use of WhatsApp while he was working as an anaesthetist.

• "Such platforms are used extensively, but it is against the law," he said.

• Anonymising data meant doctors might "just about get away with it", he added, but that would not continue forever.

SOURCE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-40507440

But Be ware of Other ‘Seemingly Harmless’ use of Social Media Seven NHS staff suspended over Facebook ‘Lying Down Game’ pictures.

Published in The Times, Sept. 2009.

SOURCE: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/seven-nhs-staff-suspended-over-facebook-lying-down-game-pictures-n0kjv72ptjt

Social Media and Healthcare – The Future.

Some simple rules….

Don’t Lie.

Don’t Pry.

Don’t Cheat.

Don’t Delete –amend instead!

Don’t Steal.

Don’t Reveal.

Source: FarrisTimimi, M.D

However……..

The biggest risk in health care social media is not participating in the

conversation.

Farris Timimi, M.D., is medical director for the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media

References

• GMC, Doctors’ use of social media (2013). www.gmc-uk.org

• GMC, Making and using visual and audio recording of patients (2011). www.gmc-uk.org

• British Medical Association: Social media practical guidance and best practice. BMA.org.uk

• Guide to social media: understanding marketing and media. MDU.com.

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-40507440

• https://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/tsd/ig/

• https://www.theguardian.com/healthcare-network/views-from-the-nhs-frontline/2017/jun/05/should-doctors-use-whatsapp-to-bypass-archaic-nhs-tech

• http://innovations.bmj.com/content/1/4/174

• https://www.bma.org.uk/advice/employment/ethics/social-media-guidance-for-doctors

• http://www.gmc-uk.org/guidance/good_medical_practice.asp

• http://www.gmc-uk.org/guidance/ethical_guidance/confidentiality.asp

• http://www.gmc-uk.org/Prescribing_guidance.pdf_59055247.pdf

• https://lifeinthefastlane.com/