Social engines and social media sites, like Facebook and Instagram, are being employed more and more in social, professional, and political contexts. It is evident that the use of social media has increased in researching for information that cannot be found in the medical history of the patient. Social media is increasingly becoming an instrument supporting health care procedures, collecting and sharing data. I believe that while compiling a report, it will be important to exhaust all available sources to research information that will be used to treat the patient. Therefore, I feel that the safety of the patient should surpass the privacy issue as stipulated in the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution (Parsi & Elster, 2015).
Furthermore, it is important that the safety of the patient should override the privacy while trying to research information from social media posts to treat Shelley. It is true that social media is a public social platform that provides all the valuable information that will be used to treat the patient. Social media has vast information that will allow one to get the needed information regarding Shelley, especially when it is not accessible by more traditional methods of getting some medical information. It will be then possible to research information about the patient from social media posts, like Facebook because these social media platforms have a high volume of personal data that can be accessed. It is evident from the discussion that social media platforms, such as Facebook make the information of an individual public where it can be accessed more effortlessly (DeCamp et al ., 2013) .
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The conclusion in the discussion is very compelling in that physicians, and other health care practitioners should exhaust all the available options to get information of the patients. The information is important because it will allow the physician to administer the right treatment. Consequently, looking for Shelley's social media posts will be vital in helping the patient.
Response 2
Social media as a tool in the modern society presents both challenges and opportunities, particularly in the health care field. Physicians have the obligation to safeguard patient’s privacy, as well as confidentiality and act in a professional way in the public arena. Physicians have access to online patient data, which might otherwise not accessible in healthcare environments. The information that can be retrieved in the social media might be beneficial in certain healthcare environments, but physicians should be sensitive to the source and the manner the information was presented publicly. The physicians are obligated in this scenario to use their clinical judgment in ascertaining whether and the way to disclose such data in the treatment of patients (Lagu & Greysen, 2011).
It is apparent that the use of social media to retrieve information about the patient comes with several challenges and benefits. It has been established that there are no clear rules that govern the use of social media, which makes the boundary blurred. In spite of the pervasiveness of social media use, clinical investigators, as well as institutional review boards (IRBs) have offered little sound guidance on ethical usage of social media along with the Internet as research tools. Sustaining trust in a patient-physician association needs physicians to use consistently ethical standards for maintaining the relationship, privacy, as well as confidentiality. Thus, maintaining privacy is central to the patient-physician relationship, because preserving patient trust is indispensable for effective clinical care. I concur with the argument that while social media tools, as well as the web’s collective usefulness as a research instrument is important, there are inherent ethical concerns that should be addressed by the broader medical research community. Accordingly, agree that both patients and physicians should give a fair use of social media to benefit from the platform (Swirsky, 2015).
References
DeCamp, M, Koenig, T.W.,& Chisolm, M.S. (2013). Social media and physicians’ online identity crisis. JAMA . 310(6):581-582. Retrieved from https://jhu.pure.elsevier.com/en/publications/social-media-and-physicians-online- identity-crisis-5.
Lagu, T, & Greysen, S.R. (2011). Physician, monitor thyself: professionalism and accountability in the use of social media. J Clin Ethics . 22(2):187-190. Retrieved from http://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/2015/11/pdf/peer1-1511.pdf .
Parsi, K. & Elster, N. (2015). Why Can’t We Be Friends? A Case-Based Analysis of Ethical Issues with Social Media in Health Care. AMA Journal of Ethics , Volume 17, Number 11: 1009-1018. Retrieved from www. http://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/2015/11/peer1- 1511.html.
Swirsky, E. (2015). Why social media needs to have a code of ethics for clinical research. CIO. Retrieved from http://www.cio.com/article/3016232/social-networking/why-social- media-needs-to-have-a-code-of-ethics-for-clinical-research.html .
