Doctors… stop your Twittering!

What is all this Twitter nonsense about? No sooner do I get the hang of blogging than everyone is asking: “Do you tweet?”. To which I normally reply: “only if I’m on a high-fibre diet.”

For those who don’t know, Twitter is a personal blog that’s limited to tweets of just 140 characters. It’s like sending out a one-line mass text message to all your friends… or Followers, as one's Twitter acolytes are known.

Anyway, it appears that Twitter has become increasingly popular with trainee doctors and other younger members of the medical profession. This has prompted a researcher with an ology in ‘stating the bleedin’ obvious’ to claim that tweets might breach patient confidentiality.

The researcher, Dr Katherine Chretien of the Washington DC VA Medical Center, said that medical students may not be aware of how online posting can reflect negatively on medical professionalism or jeopardise their careers.

I can imagine just the sort of thing being twittered…

“Mrs Smith just passed an enormous motion in Room 3!” or “Just gave Mr Johnson a pee bottle with a big hole in it… snigger!”

Dr Chretien said many of the Twitters included profanity and discriminatory language as well as sexually suggestive material and photos showing drunkenness or illicit drug use.

Hello… we’re talking about medical students here. What the hell does she expect? Has the woman never seen Green Wing or watched an Episode of Dr In The House? Medics are notorious for that sort of thing. I once went to a party where the guests were mostly from the medical profession and was staggered by the amount of alcohol consumed and how many of them were smoking. Gallows’ humour it seems is an essential emotional escape valve for those who have to work with the sick, the dying and the terminally stupid.

"Sharing patient stories that are de-identified and respectful, as health professionals might do on personal blogs, can encourage reflection, empathy and understanding,” said the ever-so-earnest Dr Chretien.

"However, content may risk violation of patient privacy, even without using names or other identifiers," the puritan warned.

Oh for heaven’s sake! Lighten up, will you? As long as no names or locations are used then where’s the harm? She’ll be saying jokes are ‘verboten’ next. Why is it that ‘researchers’ always seem totally devoid of a sense of humour or common sense?

The researchers are so bothered by all this naughty blogging lark they think part of a doctor’s training should involve learning how to use Privacy settings on Facebook and Twitter responsibly.

Frankly I’d rather doctors spent their training improving their bedside manner or learning how to put a canula in the back of my hand without it feeling like I've just been shot with an elephant rifle.