While doctors are divided over whether medical practices should be active on social media networks, Dr Jeff Livingston says that Facebook and Twitter are effective tools for educating patients and marketing his Texas OB-GYN practice.

Over the past two years, MacArthur OB/GYN has ventured into the world of social media, where doctors post news about their own practice and the medical world at large. Its Facebook page has almost 700 fans. “People are looking for information online,” he says. “I wanted them to look at our page.”

Many doctors have been deterred from social media by concerns over time and patient privacy.
"No matter how you parse it, doctors don't avoid the Internet and social media because they're simply Luddites," Westby Fisher, an Illinois cardiac electrophysiologist, wrote last month on his blog, Dr. Wes. "They avoid the Internet because they enjoy the benefits of anonymity, privacy, efficiency and legal protection that come with dropping off the grid."

Livingston says that these have not really been issues for his practice. In the two years since he launched the Macarthur Obgyn Facebook page, he has only had to remove content posted by others three times.  "What I'm watching for is that no private personal health information gets relayed via social media," says Livingston, who says he keeps a close watch on the page with his iPhone and iPad. ~USA Today, Jul 9