Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine (KPCOM)—Osteopathic Medicine Program 2024–2025 169 2. Unprofessional postings by others on your page may reflect very poorly on you. Monitor others’ postings on your site and strive to ensure that the content would not be viewed as unprofessional. It may be useful to block postings from individuals who post unprofessional content. 3. H elp monitor your peers by alerting colleagues to unprofessional or potentially offensive comments made online to avoid future indiscretions and refer them to this document. 4. Always avoid giving medical advice as this could result in a violation of HIPAA, could potentially risk liability under state licensing laws, and may cause danger to others. Make sure that you differentiate medical opinions from medical facts and articulate which statements reflect your personal beliefs. 5. D ue to continuous changes in these sites you should closely monitor the privacy settings of your social network accounts to optimize their privacy and security. Restrict your settings so that only individuals you have authorized to access your profile can see your information. Also, you should not share or post any identification numbers or demographic information online. 6. Others may post photos of you and may “tag” you in each of the photos. It is your responsibility to make sure that these photos are appropriate and are not professionally compromising. As a general rule it is wise to “untag” yourself from any photos, and to refrain from tagging others unless you have explicit permission from them to do so. Privacy or account settings may allow you to prevent photos from being “tagged” with your information or may prevent others from seeing your tags. 7. O nline discussions of specific patients should be strictly avoided, even if all identifying information is excluded. It is possible that someone could recognize the patient to whom you are referring based upon the context in which it is presented. 8. U nder no circumstances should media of patients/cadavers or media depicting the body parts of patients/cadavers be displayed online (e.g., photographs, video clips, audio clips). Remember, even if you have permission, such media may be downloadable and forwarded by others. Once you post, the actions of others could lead to legal or professional consequences for you personally. 9. C onsider, with care, who you add or accept as a “friend” or “connection” on your social networking site(s). 10. Do not have interactions with patients on social networking sites. This provides an opportunity for a dual relationship, which may damage the doctor-patient relationship and may have legal consequences. 11. Do not infringe upon another’s copyrighted or trademarked materials. If you post content, photos, or other media, you are acknowledging that you own or have the right to use these items. 12. Refrain from accessing social networking sites while in class, at work, or in clinical-work areas. K. Cultural Competence With the ever-increasing diversity of the population of the United States and strong evidence of racial and ethnic disparities in health care, it is important that KPCOM students address issues of culture in an effective and professional manner in the classroom and the clinic or hospital settings.
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