Tweeting Docs

More physicians are starting to log on to Twitter to connect with patients, promote their practices and discuss issues like health care reform. Dr. Howard Luks, an orthopedic surgeon who's chief of sports medicine and arthroscopy at University Orthopedics and Westchester Medical Center north of New York City, is one.

In a recent post on his blog "The Orthopedic Posterous," he gives some advice for other doctors looking to Tweet -- and it mostly has to do with steering clear of HIPPA - the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which protects patient privacy. He also is disdainful of doctors who are getting into social networking to advertise their practices, saying you can tell those physicians who have been told to Tweet by an ad agency. (Social networking "will not fill your office with patients," Luks writes.)

Boiled down a bit, here they are:

• Figure out why you are doing this! It shouldn't simply be the result of a discussion with a PR agency.

• If you're posting information about your practice and specialty, minimize tweets of little interest to your followers. They are following you because of the information you post, not because you are at a ballgame with your buddies.

• Do not engage directly with your patients. By posting a link to an article you feel is pertinent to a patient, you may be sharing their diagnosis with the world.

• HIPAA, HIPAA, HIPAA

• Think about having a disclosure statement.

• For those of you interested in bigger picture -- health care policy, e-patients, participatory medicine, the promise of health care and social media -- go for it.