The Rise and Risks of Healthcare Influencers
Healthcare influencers have become a popular source of health information online, particularly since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Influencers use their online presence on social media platforms to not only educate and generate interest on healthcare topics, but also combat misinformation. Social media is an ideal way for them to reach more people than they could on an average workday.
The United States has approximately 302 million social media users.1 It is clear that healthcare influencers have a huge potential audience, which makes them a powerful tool for healthcare promotion. In addition to posting about healthcare, influencers also may partner with companies to endorse specific products and brands.
Unfortunately, sometimes healthcare influencers’ good intentions may cause problems. Social media, like all technology, can create safety and liability issues if not used responsibly. Additionally, because social media changes rapidly, standards and best practices are not always well defined. Broad areas of potential risk include advertising, content, and confidentiality.
Advertising
Since it is not always easy to recognize what constitutes online advertising, healthcare influencers need to understand when their content could be construed as such. If influencers have financial, employment, personal, or family relationships with brands, they need to disclose that information.2 For example, if a pharmaceutical or biomedical company compensates an influencer to endorse a product, the influencer needs to disclose that financial relationship when promoting the product on social media.
The disclosure of conflicts of interest and financial or commercial interests also applies when influencers receive gifts, products, or services from organizations and companies. These disclosures allows social media users to easily recognize what content is sponsored as part of a brand partnership or endorsement.
Influencers who fail to properly identify sponsored content and posts may violate Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines and face civil and/or criminal fines.3 To learn more about FTC guidelines for when and how to disclose, see Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers.
Content
To avoid any liability exposure, healthcare influencers should maintain a responsible and credible presence online by adhering to professional boundaries and monitoring the quality of the information they post. Healthcare influencers should be sufficiently qualified and knowledgeable to provide information on healthcare and health conditions, and the information they post should be accurate, current, objective, and unambiguous.
Pointing users to sources of credible information and providing general medical or dental advice is unlikely to be problematic. However, healthcare influencers should not give personalized health advice online. If they do so, it may establish a standard of care, which may then lead to a dissatisfied person filing a state board complaint or liability claim.
Confidentiality
Whether healthcare influencers are communicating offline or online, the same principles of confidentiality apply. Social media should never be used to discuss individual patients, living or dead. Sharing a photograph of a patient’s condition or posting details about a clinical case without the patient’s consent could constitute a HIPAA breach of confidentiality.
Additionally, healthcare influencers should be mindful when posting comments on social media about their workday or general pictures of their practice setting because they may inadvertently breach confidentiality.
In Summary
Sharing credible information about healthcare topics on social media can be very beneficial to the public. This content can serve many useful purposes in healthcare by enhancing information sharing and health promotion. However, with these opportunities come risks. Therefore, healthcare influencers need to establish clear professional boundaries, deliver high-quality information, and appropriately disclose conflicts of interest and financial/commercial relationships in their posts. To learn more, see MedPro’s Risk Resources: Social Media in Healthcare.
Note: This article was adapted with permission from Premium Medical Protective’s article The Rise and Risks of Medical Influencers, originally authored by Diane Baylis, MSc, RN.
Endnotes
1 Ruby, D. (2023, March 20). Social media users in the world – (2023 Demographics). DemandSage. Retrieved from www.demandsage.com/social-media-users/
2 Federal Trade Commission. (2019). Disclosures 101 for social media influencers. Retrieved from www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/plain-language/1001a-influencer-guide-508_1.pdf
3 Roberts, J. (2023, March 8). Why creators should disclose sponsored Instagram posts (+ how). Later Blog. Retrieved from https://later.com/blog/sponsored-instagram-posts/
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