Although many physician practices utilize social media, don't expect your physician to accept your Facebook friend request, according to Kaiser Health News.
This year, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists changed its physician-patient guidelines regarding social media. It leaves it to physicians to decide whether to become Facebook friends with patients.
In the past, professional groups including the American College of Physicians and the American Academy of Family Physicians have advised against the use of personal Facebook pages for communication. In its 2010 guidelines, the American Medical Association urged physicians to separate their personal and professional online identities.
Because social networking platforms aren't typically digitally encrypted, the odds of getting hacked or inadvertently sharing private information increase.
But many patients are more than willing to communicate with their physicians via social online networking sources. In a study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, nearly 20 percent of patients reported trying to contact physicians through Facebook, and almost 40 percent through email.
"Patients want to communicate with doctors [in whatever way] is convenient," said lead author Joy Lee, a PhD research fellow at the Baltimore-based John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.