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Table 4 Salient themes derived through thematic analysis of focus group transcripts of ten senior medical students discussing social media and the Internet, Dunedin, 2016

From: Patient-targeted Googling and social media: a cross-sectional study of senior medical students

Theme

Attitudes

Data reliability

Patient information found online was possibly inaccurate or misleading.

Education

While the participants had a good ethical foundation for considering PTG, they favoured more explicit teaching and guidelines. Teaching may be more practical than enforcing guidelines.

Relationships

PTG could damage the doctor-patient relationship, though may have some role in emotional closure after a patient’s death. Online information could have significant effects on the doctor’s perception of the patient and, therefore, on their health outcomes. Consented PTG may be beneficial to the doctor-patient relationship and to patient care.

Ethics

PTG may be ethical when conducted in the interest of benefiting the patient and preventing harm. PTG may breach patient confidentiality. It may also overstep the professional and personal boundaries of the doctor patient relationship.

Intended use

The intended use of online information is important. The healthcare professional should have a practical and ethical use in mind. Protecting patient safety is a use the participants felt was justified. Curiosity and voyeurism were treated with trepidation.

Guidelines

Participants wanted explicit guidelines, though recognised that these may be impractical to enforce.

Source

It would be more appropriate to ask the patient themselves or to ask an official organisation (e.g. Police) than to conduct PTG, in light of unreliable online information.

Doctor-targeted Googling

Participants viewed patients searching for their doctors online negatively, though they recognised this was a common practice, especially when patients chose a new healthcare providers or when they wanted to see public ratings of different doctors.

Role

Some comments indicated that it may not be the role of the healthcare professional to conduct PTG, and it may be better carried out by an official organisation such as the Police or Child Youth and Family.

Value

Most comments viewed PTG unfavourably, though some indicated that it would depend on the context.

Patient identity

This context of PTG may be different for famous patients due to more available information and prior knowledge of the person. Investigating a patient who has been in the justice system may be relevant to patient or staff safety. Reading online about a motor vehicle accident may provide a more in-depth case background. Conducting PTG in the interest of patient safety about psychiatric patients was viewed as reasonable.

Social media

Participants indicated that patients and healthcare professionals may be naive when it comes to keeping online information private.

Prevalence

Most focus group participants had conducted PTG.

  1. Abbreviations: PTG Patient targeted Googling