My Social Media Policy

Bobby Ghaheri, MD — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 07:09:28 +0000

I use social media (this website, my Twitter account and Facebook fanpage for our MedSpa) for numerous purposes: Education, information exchange, entertainment, keeping up with family and friends, discussions with prospective patients, and as a conduit for existing patients to contact me. I choose not to distinguish between my personal and professional life because I feel that being a doctor doesn't define me. I think it's disingenuous to separate the two.

That being said, I must delineate some guidelines:

Any medical information given out is not given out as advice. If we haven't met in one of my terrestrial offices, we don't have a doctor-patient relationship, and you should contact your doctor. If you are one of my patients, please don't ask me questions other than "Can you have your office contact me?" because Twitter is not secure, and HIPAA violations are possible (and I don't take risks).
If I retweet something, it doesn't mean I endorse it. It means that I think the original tweet is useful, funny, important, smart, etc.
In the words of my friend @hrana, "My blog posts and Twitter status updates are not medical, legal, ethical, financial, moral, political, or any other form of advice, suggestion, or recommendation."

Other than that, please engage me. I like bacon.