Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, SHM IE-61, New Haven, CT 06510, USA.
J Gen Intern Med. 2010 Nov;25(11):1227-9. doi: 10.1007/s11606-010-1447-1. Epub 2010 Jul 15.
The rise of social media--content created by Internet users and hosted by popular sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Wikipedia, and blogs--has brought several new hazards for medical professionalism. First, many physicians may find applying principles for medical professionalism to the online environment challenging in certain contexts. Second, physicians may not consider the potential impact of their online content on their patients and the public. Third, a momentary lapse in judgment by an individual physician to create unprofessional content online can reflect poorly on the entire profession. To overcome these challenges, we encourage individual physicians to realize that as they "tread" through the World Wide Web, they leave behind a "footprint" that may have unintended negative consequences for them and for the profession at large. We also recommend that institutions take a proactive approach to engage users of social media in setting consensus-based standards for "online professionalism." Finally, given that professionalism encompasses more than the avoidance of negative behaviors, we conclude with examples of more positive applications for this technology. Much like a mirror, social media can reflect the best and worst aspects of the content placed before it for all to see.
社交媒体的兴起——由互联网用户创建并由 Facebook、Twitter、YouTube 和 Wikipedia 等热门网站以及博客托管的内容——给医学专业主义带来了一些新的危险。首先，在某些情况下，许多医生可能会发现将医学专业主义原则应用于在线环境具有挑战性。其次，医生可能没有考虑到他们的在线内容对患者和公众的潜在影响。第三，个别医生一时判断失误，在网上发布不专业的内容，可能会给整个行业带来负面影响。为了克服这些挑战，我们鼓励个别医生认识到，当他们“踏足”万维网时，他们会留下一个“足迹”，这可能会给他们和整个行业带来意想不到的负面后果。我们还建议机构采取主动措施，让社交媒体的用户参与制定基于共识的“在线专业主义”标准。最后，鉴于专业精神不仅仅是避免负面行为，我们以这种技术的更积极应用为例。社交媒体就像一面镜子，将摆在它面前的内容的最好和最坏的方面都反映出来。
