Using social media as a medical professional
Good medical practice sets out the principles, values, and standards of care and professional behaviour expected of all medical professionals registered with us. The standards of good practice apply to doctors, physician associates and anaesthesia associates (collectively referred to as medical professionals and whom we address directly as ‘you’ throughout the guidance). As with all our professional standards, this guidance applies to all our registrants to the extent it is relevant to the individual’s practice. Using social media as a medical professional builds on Good medical practice to provide more detail on our expectations of medical professionals in this area.
The professional standards describe good practice, and not every departure from them will be considered serious. You must use your professional judgement to apply the standards to your day-to-day practice. If you do this, act in good faith and in the interests of patients, you will be able to explain and justify your decisions and actions. We say more about professional judgement, and how the professional standards relate to our fitness to practise processes, appraisal and revalidation, at the beginning of Good medical practice.
Maintaining public trust
How you behave when using social media matters. Medical professionals, like everyone else, have rights to freedom of belief, privacy, and expression. But exercising these rights when using social media as a medical professional has to be balanced with the possible impact on other people’s rights and interests.
It is important that your content includes appropriate context, so that people who access what you say about health and healthcare have information that supports their understanding and helps them to verify your claims and expertise. If you’re commenting on health or healthcare issues you should usually say who you are.
Bear in mind that content uploaded anonymously can, in many cases, be traced back to its point of origin. When communicating privately, including using instant messaging services, messages or other communications in private groups may also become public. We have a legal duty to investigate any concerns raised to us that reach our fitness to practise threshold.
Being honest and trustworthy in your communications
As a medical professional, patients and the public are likely to take what you say on trust, and they may adapt their attitudes or behaviour towards their health, other medical professionals, or healthcare services as a result.
You must take reasonable steps to make sure that the information you communicate on social media as a medical professional is not false or misleading and does not exploit people’s vulnerability or lack of medical knowledge. You must not misrepresent your experience and qualifications.
If you use social media to advertise your services, or use your professional position to promote or endorse any other services or products, you must be open and honest about any interests you have that may influence (or could be seen to influence) the recommendations you make. You must also comply with relevant law, guidance and regulatory codes including those from the Committee of Advertising Practice, the Advertising Standards Authority and the Competition and Markets Authority.
Where relevant you must also follow the more detailed guidance we publish. In particular:
Behaving professionally and maintaining boundaries
You must not use social media to abuse, discriminate against, bully, harass or deliberately target any individual or group.
When interacting with or commenting about individuals or organisations on or using social media, be aware that communications are subject to the same laws of copyright, defamation, discrimination, and harassment as written or verbal communications – whether they are made in a personal or professional capacity.
Using social media creates risks where social and professional boundaries become unclear. You must follow the guidance in Maintaining personal and professional boundaries.
If a patient contacts you about their care through your private profile, you should direct them to an appropriate healthcare setting for further support with their query.
Respecting patient confidentiality, privacy and dignity
When using social media of any kind, you must maintain patient confidentiality and recognise and respect patients’ dignity and their right to privacy.
Although individual pieces of information may not breach confidentiality on their own, the sum of information shared could be enough for a patient or someone close to them to recognise and identify their case.
You must not disclose identifiable information about patients, when using social media, unless you have explicit consent to do so – for example, for educational purposes. In which case, you must follow our guidance: Confidentiality: disclosing for education and training purposes and Making and using visual and audio recordings of patients.
