Patient-targeted Googling and social media: a cross-sectional study of senior medical students

Autor: Susan E. Walthert, Aaron N Chester, Lynley Anderson, Stephen J. Gallagher, Michael L. Stitely
Rok vydání: 2017
Předmět:
Adult
Male
Students
Medical
Health (social science)
020205 medical informatics
Cross-sectional study
Information Seeking Behavior
Context (language use)
02 engineering and technology
Social Networking
Social media
Young Adult
03 medical and health sciences
Patient-targeted Googling
0302 clinical medicine
Physicians
Surveys and Questionnaires
0202 electrical engineering
electronic engineering
information engineering
Humans
Ethics
Medical
030212 general & internal medicine
lcsh:R723-726
Physician-Patient Relations
Medical education
Health Policy
Focus Groups
Doctor-patient relationship
Focus group
Professional ethics
Search Engine
Online professionalism
Issues
ethics and legal aspects
Cross-Sectional Studies
Attitude
Privacy
Philosophy of medicine
Doctor–patient relationship
Female
Thematic analysis
lcsh:Medical philosophy. Medical ethics
Psychology
PTG
New Zealand
Research Article
Zdroj: BMC Medical Ethics
BMC Medical Ethics, Vol 18, Iss 1, Pp 1-8 (2017)
ISSN: 1472-6939
DOI: 10.1186/s12910-017-0230-9
Popis: Background Social media and Internet technologies present several emerging and ill-explored issues for a modern healthcare workforce. One issue is patient-targeted Googling (PTG), which involves a healthcare professional using a social networking site (SNS) or publicly available search engine to find patient information online. The study’s aim was to address a deficit in data and knowledge regarding PTG, and to investigate medical student use of SNSs due to a close association with PTG. Method The authors surveyed final year medical students at the Otago Medical School, University of Otago in January 2016. A subset completed focus groups that were analysed using thematic analysis to identify key themes relating to students’ attitudes towards PTG, and reasons why they might engage in PTG. Results Fifty-four students completed the survey (response rate = 65.1%), which showed that PTG was uncommon (n = 9, 16.7%). Attitudes were varied and context dependent. Most participants saw problems with PTG and favoured more explicit guidance on the issue (n = 29, 53.7%). SNS usage was high (n = 51, 94.4%); participants were concerned by the content of their SNS profiles and who they were connecting with online. Participants showing high SNS use were 1.83 times more likely to have conducted PTG than lower use groups. Conclusions The diverse attitudes uncovered in this study indicated that teaching or guidelines could be useful to healthcare professionals considering PTG. Though ethically problematic, PTG may be important to patient care and safety. The decision to conduct PTG should be made with consideration of ethical principles and the intended use of the information.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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