Dos and don’ts for doctors on social media

They should not ‘doctor’ ratings; avoid posting patients’ reports

Rachana Ramesh | NT
Bengaluru

The National Medical Commission (NMC) has put out guidelines for conduct of doctors on social media in its draft regulations. The guidelines are set to address the need to distinguish between telemedicine consultation and social media interactions, and to establish the principles of medical ethics even in the virtual realm of social media.
The guidelines say Registered Medical Practitioners (RMPs) should not directly or indirectly indulge in the practice of purchasing likes, followers, or paying money so that search algorithms lead to their name being listed at the top. They must also not register on software programs (apps) that charge fees for higher ratings or soliciting patients.
“The NMC is targeting doctors who try to purchase good reviews and come on top. It is a good regulation but any regulation inherently has the chances of being misused. Considering that, it must be clearly vetted before implementation,” said Dr Jagadish Hiremath, who has a significant number of followers on the social media platform Twitter. 
The guidelines also said RMPs should avoid discussing the treatment of patients on public social media or prescribing medicine to patients on the public social media platform. If a patient approaches doctors through public social media, the doctor should guide the patient toward a telemedicine consultation or in-person consultation as the situation warrants.
“If it’s not the first consultation, it (social media prescribing) is completely fine on a note of emergency. If my patient of 20 years just moved to Delhi in the middle of a health crisis, and I know his history best, it would not be wrong for me to give him advice over the phone,” said Dr R L Kamath, adding that social media eases the burden in cases of emergency.
The guidelines added that RMPs should not post patients’ photographs or scan images on social media since once an image is posted on social media, it becomes data that is owned by the social media company or the general public. It also said that RMPs should refrain from sharing images of healed/cured patients, or surgery/procedure videos or images displaying impressive results under any circumstances.
“As per the already existing regulations, it is prohibited for doctors to advertise (use pictures) but the same thing does not hold true for companies that are into health care deliveries,” Dr. Jagadish said. Many companies that now thrive in the digital healthcare space have newly arrived and are not included in the ambit of the law forming a loophole that is being misused to solicit patients, he added.
“It is basically doctor advertising by proxy. If the law includes stopping digital marketing by these companies, then we would be in a much safer zone than just the prohibition being restricted to doctors and hospitals,” he concluded.
RMPs should also not request or share patients’ testimonials or recommendations or endorsements or reviews in social media and can provide information and announcements on social media. However, the information should not be misleading or deceptive, nor should it exploit the patient’s vulnerability or lack of 
knowledge.