Five Reasons Why Physicians Should be in Social Media

In November, 2011 the AMA published a report on Professionalism in the use of Social Media.  A brief summary of the paper  was published in June, 2010.  The issues addressed by the AMA are reasonable and practical in my view.  There have been some excellent pieces written about the ‘ethical’ issues seen by others about physicians being on social media as well as reasons that physicians themselves give for not wanting to participate. The issue has also generated some excellent thought-provoking discussion in the Digital Health Linkedin group.    As an active participant is social media, I realize its value to patients, caregivers and providers. There have been many other articles and posts about physicians and social media.  I just thought it was time for me to put my perspective out there. I would like to touch on five reasons I believe that physicians should embrace social media.