Ethical Issues of Social Media Usage in Healthcare. Essay Example

The article by Denecke et al. (2015) has focused on healthcare ethical issues experienced through the application of social media. The rise of technology has resulted in easy sharing of information, and therefore, healthcare with no exception has adopted social media to enhance service delivery and patient care. Furthermore, the purpose of the article is to study the ethical inferences of different trends of how social media is used in healthcare as well as discover areas that require more research in the future. The tendencies to be inspected include the utilization of social media by youths and elderly, the practice of wearable technology, crowdsourcing in health care, the effects on patient and healthcare professional’s communication and relationship as well as the incorporation of the technology in the hospital environment (Denecke et al., 2015). Also, the article information is useful for healthcare professionals who are required to understand the different ethical issues that arise from the use of social media, including privacy and confidence. Besides, researchers need the information because the article has presented topics that need more research in future. Thus researchers can focus on those topics as well as improve the information provided in the study.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

The incorporation of social media in the hospital environment raises ethical concerns that are a critical concept under discussion because the advancement in technology has provided a broad platform that allows patients, physicians, and other individuals to share their healthcare information and conditions. However, they do not realize the ethical implications available to them. For instance, according to Denecke et al. (2015), stated that communication and relationships between physicians and patients in an online environment might be interfered with, especially in data security and privacy. Therefore, patient information is vital and should not be provided to the public without informed consent from the patient. The concept of informed consent is essential because as people share their healthcare information and other sensitive data to social media, they must get informed consent from the owner of the information. Moreover, according to Denecke et al. (2015) argued that the advancement in technology has resulted in many people accessing social media. Thus, the need for incorporating social media in the healthcare environment and being used as a means of communication is significant. Nonetheless, individuals involved in the utilization of social media in health environment need to undergo vigorous training to ensure they understand the required information to share in public and which are not.

The article has presented a critical topic on the ethical concerns emerging during social media usage in medical care. In every healthcare environment, confidentiality and privacy of patient information are always crucial; therefore, as technology advances, there is a need for individuals involved to weigh the benefits and harm the communication channels will have to patients if there are no guidelines. Another strength of the article is that it was conducted by authors with experience and knowledge in the application of social media technologies in medical care, therefore providing a necessary analysis (Denecke et al., 2015). The weakness presented is the broad application of social media in medical care, thus allowing the article to focus on a few. The few use cases are not enough to represent the whole usage of social media in healthcare. Similarly, the topic has limited research conducted, which implies that the information available concerning it is less, making them provide more topics that require more research in future. For instance, realizing the type of content in social media relevant to health information and being included in the patient record (Denecke et al., 2015).

References

Denecke, K., Bamidis, P., Bond, C., Gabarron, E., Househ, M., Lau, A. Y. S. ... & Hansen, M. (2015). Ethical issues of social media usage in healthcare. Yearbook of Medical Informatics, 10(1), 137. https://doi.org/10.15265/IY-2015-001 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4587037/