Health care professionals’ use of social media can pose ethical challenges related to the boundary between professional and personal identities, privacy, confidentiality, and the trustworthiness of health care professionals.

Online health communities offer patients the opportunity to interact with those who have been diagnosed with a disease, track their health information on the site, and become involved in research, but the community sites cannot guarantee privacy of patient information.

A 15-year-old advance directive made when the patient was in much better health and not updated can bring more confusion than clarity to the decision-making process.

A 15-year-old advance directive made when the patient was in much better health and not updated can bring more confusion than clarity to the decision-making process.

Baby boomers are different from the generations that preceded them. They are more savvy, assertive, health-conscious, and engaged in their care.

When acting as a surrogate for incapacitated incarcerated patients, physicians may disclose protected health information to a patient’s legal counsel.

Decision-making capacity can be preserved in patients with mental illness and should be formally assessed in the context of their values and past decisions.

The Bioethics Commission’s recommendations to include research participants with impaired consent capacity provide an ethical foundation for neuroscience.

The American College of Physicians and the Federation of State Medical Boards’ guidelines for online medical professionalism apply existing norms of communication and confidentiality to new settings but will need to be modified in light of technological advances and unanswered questions.

Telepsychiatry extends access to psychiatric treatment to those who might not otherwise get it, but licensure problems and the risk of boundary violations between patients and physicians need to be worked out.