Physician - Patient relationship in social media
Canadian researchers report nearly 80% of internet users are searching for a health information online. Forgie et al looked into dynamics of physician-patient relationships from perspective of internet development. As for most people accessing social media is relatively free, it allows to make a search in various geographical locations, and often considered by patients to be convenient and timely. A lot of patients complain that in-person consultations with a physician falls short in information, unclear and does not allow to ask enough questions. Nonetheless, there are notable issues with getting any health information on social media. Problems include misleading content, confirmation bias, and security and privacy concerns. Questionable credibility may be explained by commonly sponsored advertisement campaign by a biased entity. Although providing explicit health care information to patients is a key for any specialist, communication barriers must be acknowledged to be overcome and physicians must be open to discuss the role of social media as a mediator of health.