Is Social Media a Friend or Foe in Dermatology Patient Education?

🔍 Key Finding Social media platforms are increasingly used for patient education in dermatology, offering benefits like tailored content and broad reach, but also posing challenges such as misinformation and professionalism concerns for physicians. Dermatologists should leverage social media’s potential while mitigating its risks to enhance patient education and improve health literacy.

🔬 Methodology Overview

• Design: Narrative review
• Data Sources: PubMed, Access DermatologyDxRx, and Scopus databases (July 2022 - January 2023)
• Selection Criteria: Peer-reviewed publications in English (with two exceptions) on social media and patient education, health misinformation, or dermatology, published between May 2014 and January 2023. Duplicate results and publications primarily focused on platforms other than social media were excluded.
• Analysis Approach: Qualitative analysis of key points and trends from selected articles.
• Scope: Use of social media for patient education, misinformation, professionalism, and other applications in dermatology, with attention to different platforms (TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, etc.) and modalities (short-form videos, long-form videos, infographics).

📊 Results

• Health Misinformation: Social media platforms, including Reddit, contain misinformation about skincare and treatments, with pseudoscientific advice often accepted as fact. A study found a statistically significant difference in quality between health care and non-health care sources of information (P=.009).
• Patient Education: Social media can be a tool for patient education, offering diverse formats like videos and infographics. A study showed that 68% of respondents using social media for acne treatment advice were more likely to consult a medical professional.
• Professionalism: Dermatologists’ use of social media presents both benefits and risks. While it can enhance patient education and practice promotion, it also raises concerns about accountability, confidentiality, professional boundaries, and potential legal issues.
• Other Uses: Social media platforms are used for support groups, promoting private practices, and disseminating research. A study found that articles posted on social media had significantly more views and downloads (P<.0001).
• Platform Usage: Dermatologists’ presence on social media is increasing, but varies across platforms. A 2019 study found 23% of dermatology residency programs on Facebook, 11% on Twitter, and 7% on Instagram. Another study found board-certified dermatologists authoring 45% of posts with the hashtag “dermatology” on TikTok.
• Demographics: Social media usage for health information varies by demographics, with younger, White, and educated individuals generally having higher health literacy. Social media offers an opportunity to bridge this gap by providing accessible information to diverse groups.
• Future Directions: Research is needed to address the spread of misinformation, establish best practices for social media use in dermatology, and explore the legal and ethical implications of targeted messaging. Studies should also examine the efficacy of different content modalities and the impact on patient outcomes and health literacy.

💡 Clinical Impact Social media platforms can be leveraged as a tool for patient education in dermatology to bridge patient-provider relationships, provide social support, and enhance patient understanding of treatment options. Dermatologists should increase their presence on social media platforms to combat misinformation with evidence-based knowledge and provide higher quality health information.

🤔 Limitations

• Selection bias in the narrative review methodology.
• Lack of established guidelines for validating health information on social media across all platforms.
• Lack of consideration for differences in behavior across intersectional demographic groups.
• Potential biases in the selected papers, as some may be written by groups or individuals who use social media for patient education or health information.
• Overrepresentation of studies from the United States and WEIRD societies.
• Lack of long-term studies on the implications of targeted messaging and potential solutions to deliver patient education content ethically.

✨ What It Means For You Dermatologists should leverage social media platforms for patient education and to counter misinformation, adapting their communication style to suit different platforms and demographics. This necessitates maintaining professionalism, ethical standards (including transparency about commercial interests), and awareness of data privacy concerns while creating engaging, evidence-based content. Furthermore, research suggests dermatologists’ increased social media presence correlates with a broader patient base and more positive online reviews.

Reference Wojtara MS. Use of Social Media for Patient Education in Dermatology: Narrative Review. JMIR Dermatol. 2023;6:e42609. https://doi.org/10.2196/42609