• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

33 Charts

  • About
    • What is 33 Charts?
    • Bryan Vartabedian MD
  • Blog
  • 33mail
  • Foci
    • Social/Public Media
    • Physicians
    • Patients
    • Hospitals
    • Information
    • Process/Flow
    • Technology
    • Digital culture
    • Future Medicine
  • The Public Physician
Uncategorized

Facebook Clinic

May 15, 2009 By Bryan Vartabedian · Reading Time: < 1 minute

So it happened again. Yesterday a patient mom friended me on Facebook and asked me for advice The answer was an easy no.

So what’s the big deal? Why not just offer some friendly advice? Truthfully, the nature of the question was one that could easily have been answered.

Here’s the thing. Patient interaction in the public domain is a no no for doctors. But what about a personal message? Still, public domain. And there’s no way to insure that you have all the information you need on the problem. The proper dialogue would be too cumbersome.  How would I document what I’ve suggested? I could go on all day but that’s not me.

Bottom line:  This kind of interaction is loose. It’s cool, it’s convenient, but it’s loose.

While we’re not ready to formally interact with patients in the social media space, we are getting close. Jay Parkinson’s Hellohealth broke the ice last month with a platform that allows patients and docs to be closer through video, text, email on a platform that looks and feels like Facebook. Clever but not ready for mass consumption.

Until then, I’ll continue to meet, talk and touch, the old-fashioned way.

Related Articles

  • The Intentional Clinic Environment
  • Facebook - A Risk to the Doctor-Patient Relationship?
  • Facebook and the Rhode Island Doctor

Related Articles

  • The Intentional Clinic Environment
  • Facebook - A Risk to the Doctor-Patient Relationship?
  • Facebook and the Rhode Island Doctor

Primary Sidebar

Bryan Vartabedian, MD

Bryan Vartabedian, MD
Bryan Vartabedian is the Chief Medical Officer at Texas Children’s Hospital Austin and one of health care’s influential
voices on technology & medicine.
Learn More

Popular Articles

  • The Fate of Fired Cleveland Clinic Resident Lara Kollab

  • 12 Things About Doximity You Probably Didn’t Know

  • Cures Act Final Rule – How It Will Change Medicine

  • Should Physicians Give Their Cell Phone Number to Patients?

  • Doximity Dialer Video – Telemedicine’s Latest Power Player

Sign up for 33mail newsletter

Featured Articles

Health Care and the Visibility-Value Continuum

Reactive and Creative Spaces

Doctors and social media: Damned if you engage, damned if you don’t

The Rise of Medicine’s Creative Class

The Case for New Physician Literacies in the Digital Age

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Footer

What is 33 Charts?

With a mashup of curated and original content that crosses the spaces of digital health, media, communication, technology, patient experience, digital culture, and the humanities, 33 charts offers unique insight and analysis on the changing face of medicine.

Founded in 2009 as a center of community and thought leadership for the issues doctors face in a digital world, 33 charts was included in the National Library of Medicine permanent web archive in 2014.
Learn More

Foci

  • Digital culture
  • Digital Health
  • EHR/Health IT
  • Future Medicine
  • Hospitals
  • Information
  • Patients
  • Physicians
  • Process/Flow
  • Quality
  • Social/Public Media
  • Technology

Copyright © 2025 · 33 Charts · Privacy Policy