Advertising a plastic surgery practice on social media can be ethically fraught, and deceptive online marketing techniques can lead to patients feeling betrayed.
Plastic surgeons’ use of patient images on social media should conform to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons’ advertising and image use guidelines.
Devan Stahl, PhD, MDiv and Christian J. Vercler, MD, MA
Social and cultural influences significantly contribute to our conceptions of healthy and pathological anatomy, and surgeons play critical roles in how these influences are expressed in clinical settings and social media.
Dr. Jones has a duty to determine how the test results were lost and why, disclose this information to his patient, Mrs. Taylor, and see that she is not held responsible for the costs of rerunning the test.
Patient safety is a medical ethics issue that must be addressed through health care teams’ open communication as well as through time-outs and checklists.