To be sure, doctors giving away patient details on Twitter or other social media sites is a big no-no and a nearly surefire violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Such providers need to reined in.

Yet, considering the number of studies done showing physician errors being made (39% of residents self-reported at least one major medical error during a six-year Mayo Clinic study) or physicians going to the other extreme and wasting patients’ money on unneeded exams (1 in 5 bone-and-joint doctors admitted in a Pennsylvania study to ordering exams based more out a fear of lawsuits than medical necessity), 3% of tweets going afoul doesn’t seem quite so bad.

The FDA lacks guidelines for drug companies and other marketers in the realm of social media, and the American Medical Association’s guidelines, released last year, are generic, lead researcher Dr. Katherine Chretien told MyHealthNewsDaily.

Chretien, who uses Twitter, said despite the red flags of unprofessional conduct and the potential for privacy violations, inappropriate remarks or dissemination of medically incorrect information, she sees social media as a place where the patient-provider relationship can be enhanced.

“I think the potential for physicians on social media is great in terms of spreading good health information, and advocacy and increasing health literacy,” she told MyHealthNewsDaily.

One of the more successful physicians in the online realm is Seattle-based pediatrician Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson, who utilizes a blog for Seattle Children’s Hospital and her Twitter account to share her knowledge and point her followers to interesting developments in the medical world.

In an interview with SmartBrief late last year, Swanson said she takes extreme caution in changing patient names, genders and situations when discussing a situation she encountered during her practice, and she will even get that patient (or patient’s parents, as the case may be) to give permission before discussing the case in the virtual realm.

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In the paper, Ellerin interviewed 10 physicians with varying specialties from across the country — conversations that may go a long way toward debunking the prevailing theory that the majority of doctors remain staggeringly behind when it comes to social media.

“People who market to doctors have a lot of preconceived notions that just aren’t correct,” Ellerin said in an interview Wednesday. Having worked with doctors earlier in her career from a marketer’s perspective, Ellerin said the emergence of social media has opened doors — not only between marketers and physicians, but also between physicians and their patients.

Many, like oncologist Dr. Stephen Lemon of Omaha, Neb., jumped into the social-media fray to fight the incorrect information that proliferates on the Internet.

“10 years ago, there was a lot of information on the web, but today, there is so much that it’s a wonder any layperson or even an expert can sift through it and know what’s accurate and what’s not,” Ellerin said, citing the key point hit upon by Lemon in his desire to engage online.

Lemon, who is preparing to launch CancerLifeCenter.com as a resource guide for cancer patients and their families, said he wants to “make the right information available to help the patient.”

Many doctors realize that patients are using social media as a way of garnering medical information — often from one another.

“Patients are sharing information among themselves; we need to be there too,” said Virginia-based bone and soft tissue surgeon Dr. Felasfa Wodajo.

Dr. Val Jones created BetterHealth.com in 2008 to bring together a large portion of the patients and physicians engaged in the social-media realm. New Hampshire-based internist Dr. Kevin Pho has become something of a social-media celebrity in the medical world, posting his takes on developments in the industry on his website, KevinMD.com, since 2004.

It is in sharing and disseminating information that doctors have found the most success; tracking down new patients has yet to produce fruit for many, Ellerin found.

Speaking with Dr. Alan Dappen, a seasoned family-medicine practitioner, Ellerin discovered that efforts to garner new patients have yet to take root, for the most part. The problem, she believes, may be as much with the patients as the doctors not reaching out.

“Many patients still look at doctors in a different light… though I do think over the next several years it will have more of an impact as people become more comfortable with doctors putting themselves out there,” Ellerin said. “Now if you Google a doctor and their blog or Twitter page comes up, you can use that to vet them.”

And while some doctors cite privacy concerns, a lack of compensation or other factors when relaying a reluctance in joining the social-media crowd, Ellerin said time is the biggest roadblock to more doctors getting involved.

For those that do participate, however, many find that their time spent online pays off in spades.

“It takes time to build a network and cultivate relationships on Twitter,” said pediatric gastroenterologist Dr. Bryan Vartabedian. ” But they are starting to bear fruit. I see it when I ask for help. The strength and power of those relationships are shocking.”

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This post is by Adam Gaub, Lead Editor of SmartBrief for Health Care Marketers.

There are already a number of social-media sites available for consumers to see the good and the bad about prospective doctors and hospitals, but now the publication best known for its rankings of the good and not-so-good in the business world is getting into the act.

This week, Consumer Reports published an online list of more than 200 medical groups that perform heart bypass surgery, ranking them on a three-level scale. Their rankings are based on data that comes from an evaluation conducted by the Society of Thoracic Surgeons — with some qualms from some of its members.

Of prime concern for many, STS chairman of quality and research Dr. Fred Edwards told The New York Times, is the notion that the ratings can misrepresent the success or inexperience of a particular group.

“What if you’re the sickest patient they’ve seen in three years?” Edwards asked, revealing a concern that practices that take on tougher cases may get rated lower simply because the surgery outcomes aren’t always as successful as those that don’t.

While it may not be a perfect system, it’s a sign the medical community is beginning to respond to the world of social media, where doctors and many other service providers can find themselves at the mercy of semi-anonymous online reviewers. Some choose to reach out directly to patients, with sites such as TwitterDoctors.net tracking the exposure and re-tweetability of the information posted by doctors — from the well-known, such as Dr. Drew and CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, to your local pediatrician.

Massachusetts-based physician Dr. Tara Lagu recently wrote a paper on the sites, such as Vitals.com, which are used by the public to post and peruse reviews of local doctors. Lagu told the Boston Globe in an interview last month that while patients aren’t simply going to believe everything they read online, doctors could do a better job of interacting with patients via the social-media realm.

“I think doctors don’t recognize the whole patient experience, but patients do: whether the parking was accessible and whether the receptionist was polite and whether they got into the room and sat for 45 minutes or whether they were seen promptly and were able to communicate with the doctor in a way that was pleasing to them,” Lagu said. “It is notable we saw very few reviews saying they got the wrong diagnosis, or surgery was bad.”

Lagu’s point is well-taken — often the experience of the patient has little to do with whether they got the proper treatment, but the entire process of getting said treatment. In a country where health insurance will soon be all but required, physicians and others in the health care industry need to gather as much information from the public as they can — and be willing to demonstrate that they are learning from it.

The STS ratings release is a good first step.

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A Social Media Week panel on health care and social media offered insights into some of the major issues facing the industry as more health care-related interactions go online. The panel dove right in, addressing the state of adverse-events reporting regulations — which I like to refer to as “Don’t Ask — You Won’t Have to Tell.”

The panelists acknowledged that the sheer volume of effort required to monitor, assess and then report any adverse events is daunting. However, prohibiting patients from engaging in a dialog through which health care providers might learn how to better serve their needs is not the answer.

Technologies are now available to help companies sift through online conversations to determine what might be considered an adverse event, considerably lessening the reporting burden. Companies can also make reporting easier by requiring users to log in when visiting their Web site.

Health care companies will need to overcome internal obstacles if they’re going to fully realize the benefits of social technology. The current labyrinth of approvals within a company doesn’t lend itself to anything near real-time interaction, panelists noted.  Health care marketing has historically been all about explaining the facts. In the future, companies will need to learn to listen to customers and respond to their unmet needs and unanswered questions. This is how consumer marketing works in the 21^st century. As one panelist put it, “People don’t want to friend Lipitor.” They want unbranded information about their condition and expert advice on what to do.

The industry also needs to find a way to motivate providers and compensate them for participating in a dialog, the panel said. Doctors, for example, have no incentive to interact with patients online, as they won’t receive compensation and they open themselves to potential liability. Electronic medical-record applications are expensive and take more time to complete while providing little immediate benefit.

Technology can play a role here, the panel noted, but to date, doctors are less than thrilled by what’s available on the market, and they are completely turned off by the out-of-pocket costs.  It will take an entrepreneur to develop the “killer app” that can create a win for providers, patients, insurers and pharma companies before significant movement will occur, they said.

Arguing that doctors aren’t “slow adopters,” merely time- and cash-strapped professionals, two former practicing physicians on the panel did acknowledge that doctors also need to become more consumer-friendly to compete in the future. Doctor-ranking sites are emerging where patients can “shop” for the best physician in their area, as determined by other patients. While physicians place little credibility on such rankings right now, they are an indication of things to come.

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