I recently was asked this question: Should physicians be on social media?
The question has many different meanings and inferences depending on how you choose to interpret it and who the audience is. There are certainly many avenues by which to approach this query, and numerous opinions as to why or why not.
Here, I'd like to approach the question from the perspective of a healthcare professional. What's the value of social media in our eyes? Can it benefit us personally by affecting change in our workplaces and the healthcare system as a whole? Can it affect positive public health change and improve the health of patients? What are the potential downsides?
Why Physicians Use Social Media: A Lack of Support
One sad but true rationale for individual doctors to use social media is that social media has become one of the few avenues left for physicians (and other healthcare workers) to get the word out about the plight of and in their healthcare workplaces and the healthcare system overall. Other players are or failing to act, including:
Federal government: Congress is increasingly wrapped up in polarizing political issues, unable to move bills forward on important healthcare reforms. Meanwhile, a majority of legislators are loath to further expand or fund any federally-backed oversight agencies, such as CMS or the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, that are well-positioned to drive improvements across healthcare workplaces.
Medical societies and organizations: Likewise, organizations such as the American Medical Association, specialty societies, and physician-backed political action committees (PACs) have been generally ineffective in gaining much ground with this "party-locked" oppositional Congress.
A further note about PACs: other healthcare mega-stakeholders -- Big Pharma, corporate/equity healthcare, insurers -- all have infinitely deeper pockets than physician PACs, and have a track record of donating exponentially more than even the best-funded physician PACs. Thus, these stakeholder "mega-donor-PACs," that now are much more frequently oppositional to the goals of physicians and other patient-care advocates, have and will hold much more sway within the halls of Congress.
Corporate healthcare: The increasing corporatization of healthcare is held up by many as a main reason for the disintegration of the healthcare workplace. There is little sympathy among many corporate leaders to hear about the plights of doctors and other workers.
Hospital management: In general, across the country are facing massive and are thus much less willing to expend hard-fought dollars to improve healthcare workplaces, especially if such improvements come with increasing costs and reduced revenues.
Therefore, social media becomes one of the few avenues, other than unionization, where doctors can convey their worsening plight and try to effect change. And many have taken to social media to do just this.
But how effective is this, really? Do physician-driven social media efforts actually lead to healthcare workplace or systemic changes? Can they benefit public health?
Examining the Evidence
There is ample and even research to show that social media efforts and campaigns have led to changes within many pillars of our society and structure. But, I came across little current evidence or information to conclusively show that individual efforts can improve issues plaguing our nation's healthcare system and workplaces. Perhaps some individual anecdotes show otherwise, and many physicians do continue to speak out. But on a large scale, the jury is out.
In fact, many suggest that with so many of the "empowered" and controlling healthcare stakeholders committed to maintaining the status quo, there is little chance or opportunity for any rapid and meaningful change -- social-media driven or otherwise.
While there is the for larger-scale social media campaigns from public health organizations to promote healthy behaviors, concerns about privacy and misinformation online cannot be ignored. For the general public, differentiating the truth from false information or conspiracy theories poses challenges.
Where Do We Go From Here?
A preferred pathway to effect positive change in our healthcare system and workplaces is for all stakeholders -- big and small -- to come together and work collaboratively to address the myriad plaguing healthcare.
However, we currently see just the opposite, with the major stakeholders increasingly opposed to one another and several working primarily to maximize their own agendas (frequently that of increased profit) at the expense of other stakeholders and the system overall. Physicians, increasingly positioned as employees, now find they have little say or input on management issues in our increasingly corporatized healthcare systems. Thus, no one else seems to want to listen when physicians try to speak out about our healthcare workplaces and the plight of our patients.
So, while many physicians continue to post about issues plaguing healthcare, many others, in frustration, are now turning to unions in an attempt to effect change. Meanwhile, others are simply giving up and all together. That's a problematic trend.
is a physician practitioner and educator. He is a published author and national speaker on issues related to healthcare, including pandemic preparedness and workplace/workforce disruptors. He provides advice and mentoring to those facing issues within their healthcare workplaces. Opinions expressed are the author's alone, and do not necessarily represent views or opinions of the author's employers or affiliates.