Medicine 2.0: Ethical challenges of social media for the health profession

Abstract

Social media (web 2.0) is profoundly changing the way people interact with, and relate to, the internet. The success of Facebook, with over 800 million active users, surely indicates that social media is not a fad. Healthcare will not go untouched by social media. The combination of social media and healthcare (medicine 2.0) will be a powerful one. Social media will impact healthcare in many ways, including reducing information asymmetry, increasing access to, and portability of, personal health information and altering the doctor-patient relationship. Adoption of social media in healthcare will be driven both by patient preferences and by economic forces. The challenge for the health profession is to understand the impacts and drivers of the phenomenon, including the ethical issues raised by this new form of human interaction, and respond appropriately.