I’m looking toward a future in the medical field as a doctor. I feel like with Healthcare, there are so many ways that Social Media can be used in order to benefit patients and the general population in terms of informing people about solutions and potential cautions to keep in mind in different situations. A potential issue with this is that sometimes there are fake links and articles that are created that contain false information which could misguide patients in their decision-making for their health.

However, there is some possible positive outcome from the online discussion on forums and social media sites in that patients with serious issues are able to find others who are going through similar situations. It creates a safe space where people can talk about their experiences and get advice. I think that this is definitely a plus when it comes to the connectivity of social media.

Social media usage by healthcare professionals has been at times harmed them in that in some situation when they post about their experiences online they have lost their jobs due to patient confidentiality and other ethical issues. An NIH article explained situations in which ER personnel’s online posts and Medical students’ cadaver pictures have lost their jobs (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3863578/).

Another really big part of the Medical field in terms of the spread of knowledge are Medical Journals. Some of the most influential journals are the New England Journal of Medicine whose impact factor is 59.558, the Lancet whose impact factor is 44.002 and the Nature Biotechnology whose impact factor is 42.113 as reported by the NIH (https://tools.niehs.nih.gov/srp/publications/highimpactjournals.cfm). The impact factor is how often a journal is quoted in a year. These journals contain a lot of information about new technology and potential cures and treatments to different conditions.