Amanda Xi*, Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine, Bloomfield, United States Joel Topf*, Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine, Royal Oak, United States Jill Stefaniak, Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine, Rochester, United States Track: Research Presentation Topic: other Presentation Type: Poster presentation Submission Type: Single Presentation Last modified: 2013-09-25

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Background
It is estimated that 90% of medical students participate in online social networking. Although social media sites offer unique avenues for communication and new opportunities for education they may open students to unrecognized potential patient privacy violations and damage professional reputation. Moreover, the permanence of posts on social networking sites can result in serious legal ramifications and negatively impact future career opportunities, undermining the general public’s confidence in the medical profession as a whole. Although 95% of U.S. allopathic medical schools have a Facebook presence, only 10% have explicit policies concerning social media usage. This study investigates the current status of social media policies in U.S. allopathic medical schools.

Objective
The goal of this study is to determine the percentage of U.S. allopathic medical schools with explicit social media policies or guidelines and their specific characteristics.

Methods
133 U.S. allopathic medical schools were identified using the AAMC website. Each school’s website was searched for a public student handbook or list of policies pertaining to student affairs. Each handbook was searched for the terms “social media” and “social networking.” Schools that had policies or guidelines available were further analyzed.

Results
18 (14%) handbooks were unavailable and those schools were excluded from analysis. Of the 115 handbooks analyzed, 43 (37%) mentioned “social media” or “social networking.” Two policies were URLs to another document, however they were excluded from analysis because one went to a password protected document and the second was a broken link. The 41 social media policies (n=41) available were downloaded by January 7, 2013 and analyzed for 33 specific terms and characteristics. There was a strong correlation between word count and total characteristics contained (p<0.0001). The most common themes identified were professionalism (90%), patients (80%) and confidentiality (70%) while the least common were abstaining from providing medical advice (7%) and misrepresentation (10%). Facebook was included in 73% of handbooks while LinkedIn was in 27%. Only 46% of schools mention the potential for HIPAA violations and 27% note the potential for career impact. Of the documents analyzed, 41% contained both policies and guidelines, 22% contained policies but no guidelines for use, and 12% contained only guidelines or tips for use.

Conclusions
Since 2010, there has been nearly a 4-fold increase in the percentage of U.S. allopathic medical schools with explicit social media policies or guidelines, however, these schools remain in the minority. The primary focus of current policies was on professionalism and patient confidentiality; however, there are numerous aspects of social media that could be addressed more uniformly. Disclaimers such as “Opinions expressed are not representative of my institution” or the impact of a user’s “digital footprint” were not adequately addressed. Further work should be done to increase the number of schools with explicit policies as well as define vital characteristics of a complete policy specific to healthcare professionals.