Tag Archives: media
Doctors Urged to Refrain from Social Media Contacts With Patients
FRIDAY April 12, 2013 — In this age of texting, tweets and Facebook “friends,” doctors should show restraint when it comes to reaching out to patients through social media, new guidelines say.
Updated recommendations for online ethics from the American College of Physicians (ACP) and the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) say the key is drawing a clear line between professional life and social life.
If physicians fail to do so, the “potential dangers are confidentiality concerns, replacement of face-to-face or phone interaction, and ambiguity or misinterpretation of digital interactions,” the American College of Physicians said in a news release.
Some of the key recommendations:
- Doctors should not contact or “friend” patients through personal social media such as Facebook.
- Text-messaging should not be used for passing along medical information except when there is patient consent. Even then, doctors should use “extreme caution,” the guidelines said.
- Careful judgment is needed when a doctor is contacted through email or other electronic communications by someone who is seeking medical advice but has had no previous contact with the doctor. In such situations, it is usually best for the doctor to encourage the person to schedule an office visit, or, in the case of an urgent concern, to go to the nearest emergency department.
- Doctors should establish an online professional profile so that it appears first during an online search, instead of a review of the doctor from a physician ranking site. This can provide more control, so that the information read by patients is accurate.
- Medical trainees need to be careful about what they post online, or they could damage their future careers.
“It is important for physicians to be aware of the implications for confidentiality and how the use of online media for non-clinical purposes impacts trust in the medical profession,” Dr. Humayun Chaudhry, president and CEO of the FSMB, said in the news release.
The policy paper appears online and in the April 16 print issue of the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.
More information
The U.S. Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology outlines what is done to protect the privacy and security of your health information.
Posted: April 2013
DHX Media Signs VOD Deal with HOOPLA
Toronto and L.A.-based children’s entertainment producer and distributor DHX Media has signed a major new VOD deal with Midwest Tape-owned digital platform HOOPLA. This is the first time DHX has sold to HOOPLA and underscores the company’s aim of exploiting digital opportunities for its library of programming on emerging platforms.
The three-year deal will see HOOPLA airing over 1300 episodes of DHX Media content including popular animated shows such as Inspector Gadget, The Busy World of Richard Scarry, Caillou and Madeline.
HOOPLA was launched in 2012 and offers a full array of digital movies, television shows, music, and audiobooks. With a focus on public libraries, the content will be available throughout the US and Canada though VOD streaming.
Josh Scherba, DHX Media’s senior VP of distribution said, “We are firmly committed to seeking opportunities with new platforms, and this is a significant deal for us as HOOPLA has a key audience across North America.”
HOOPLA
Related posts:
Issue 228 – Titmouse Studios / Boulder Media
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Animation Magazine
Girls’ Peers, Not Media, May Exert Most Pressure to Be Thin
MONDAY Feb. 4, 2013 — Peers play a greater role in teen girls’ dissatisfaction with their bodies than television or social media, a new study suggests.
The research included 237 Hispanic girls, aged 10 to 17, in the United States who were asked a range of questions, including how they felt about their bodies, whether they had any eating disorder symptoms, their overall satisfaction with their lives, and whether or not they felt inferior to other girls (a measure of peer competition).
They were also asked about their social media use and to name their three favorite television shows and to rate the attractiveness of the female actresses in those shows.
Overall, neither television images of thin “ideal” women nor social media use predicted body dissatisfaction, but peer competition did, researchers Christopher Ferguson and colleagues at Texas A&M University found.
TV shows and social media did not predict eating disorder symptoms in the girls, while peer competition predicted eating disorder symptoms in the long term, but not in the short term.
Both peer competition and social media use predicted lower life satisfaction, according to the study published online Jan. 24 in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence.
“Our results suggest that only peer competition, not television or social media use, predict negative outcomes for body image. This suggests that peer competition is more salient to body and eating issues in teenage girls. However, social media use may provide a new arena for peer competition, even if it does not directly influence negative body outcomes,” the study authors wrote.
More information
The Nemours Foundation has more about teens’ body image and self-esteem.
Posted: February 2013
