Teaching professionalism in the digital age on the psychiatric consultation-liaison service

Background: The rapid emergence of social media, including Facebook and YouTube, have added a new dimension to defining, teaching, and role modeling professionalism in the medical field. Explicit and consistent role modeling of professional behaviors are needed to encourage the development of professional physicians.

Objective: The purpose of this article is to investigate the challenges and opportunities at the interface of professionalism and social media for physicians.

Method: The medical literature via PubMed was reviewed with key words including "Facebook," "YouTube," "social media," "digital media," and key issues are discussed. Our residency program was surveyed regarding their experiences with digital media in medical practice and the findings are discussed. Sample topics and relevant, thought provoking questions generated from our practices are outlined.

Results: Case vignettes are offered to exemplify issues with regard to professionalism raised by digital and social media in medical practice.

Conclusion: Social media sites offer great opportunity to widely distribute valuable health care information as well as provide physicians with a venue to de-stress. In this new digital age, trainees and lifelong learners must learn to be mindful of professionalism while using social media in order to protect their privacy as well as the image of physicians.