Social media sites such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and blogs are commonly used by doctors for doctor-to-doctor networking. However, many medical associations, risk management groups, and physician groups are advising their members to exercise caution when it comes to communicating with patients.

These organizations advise that it is not appropriate to use social media for doctor-patient communications because these channels are too informal and lack an atmosphere of professionalism, making it easy to lapse into casual conversation and inadvertently cross the boundary between personal and professional relationships.

To avoid this problem, CAP offers the following recommendations regarding the use of social media:

1. Do not discuss individual patients, dispense medical advice, respond to clinical questions from patients, or otherwise practice medicine on these sites. Social media sites do not use HIPAA-compliant secure networks, and inadvertently disclosing a patient's health information will violate HIPAA.
    
2. Presume that anything you say or post is in the public domain, and remember that anything typed or e-mailed creates a permanent record that is subject to discovery.