Psychiatrists' use of electronic communication and social media and a proposed framework for future guidelines

Recent and ongoing advances in information technology present opportunities and challenges in the practice of medicine. Among all medical subspecialties, psychiatry is uniquely suited to help guide the medical profession's response to the ethical, legal, and therapeutic challenges--especially with respect to boundaries--posed by the rapid proliferation of social media in medicine. Ironically, while limited guidelines exist for other branches of medicine, guidelines for the responsible use of social media and information technology in psychiatry are lacking.

To collect data about patterns of use of electronic communications and social media among practicing psychiatrists and to establish a conceptual framework for developing professional guidelines.

A structured survey was developed to assess the use of email, texting, and social media among the active membership of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry (GAP) to gain insight into current practices across a spectrum of the field and to identify areas of concern not addressed in existing guidelines. This survey was distributed by mail and at an annual meeting of the GAP and a descriptive statistical analysis was conducted with SPSS.

Of the 212 members, 178 responded (84% response rate). The majority of respondents (58%) reported that they rarely or never evaluated their online presence, while 35% reported that they had at some time searched for information online about patients. Only 20% posted content about themselves online and few of these restricted that information. Approximately 25% used email to communicate with patients, and very few obtained written consent to do so.

Discipline-specific guidelines for psychiatrists' interactions with social media and electronic communications are needed. Informed by the survey described here, a review of the literature, and consensus opinion, a framework for developing such a set of guidelines is proposed. The model integrates four key areas: treatment frame, patient privacy, medico-legal concerns, and professionalism. This conceptual model, applicable to many psychiatric settings, including clinical practice, residency training, and continuing medical education, will be helpful in developing discipline-wide guidelines for psychiatry and can be applied to a decision-making process by individual psychiatrists in day-to-day practice.