Social media policies at US medical schools

摘要: Background/Purpose: Today’s medical students are learning in a social media era which patient confidentiality is at risk yet schools’ policies have not been elucidated. The purpose of this study to describe the presence schools on top sites and identify whether student for these explicitly address use. Method: Websites all 132 accredited US were independently assessed by two investigators their (as March 31, 2010) most common networking microblogging (Facebook Twitter) publicly available addressing online networking. Key features from described. Results: 100% (n=132) had websites 95.45% (126/132) any Facebook presence. 25.76% (34/132) official school pages, 71.21% (94/132) groups, 54.55% (72/132) alumni groups Facebook. 10.6% (14/132) Twitter accounts. 128 (96.97%) guidelines or online. 13 (10.16%) guidelines/policies mentioning media. 38.46% (5/13) included statements that defined what forbidden, inappropriate, impermissible under circumstances, mentioned strongly discouraged behaviors. 53.85% (7/13) encouraged thoughtful responsible Conclusions: Medical using Almost presence, do behavior.While use rises, policy informing appropriate conduct lags behind. Established some can provide blueprint others adopt adapt. Keywords: online; internet; networking; professionalism policies; Web 2.0 (Published: 15 September Citation: Education Online 2010, 15: 5324 - DOI: 10.3402/meo.v15i0.5324