Dermatopathology and Social Media: Improving Participation by Increasing Clarity Open Access

In the June 2017 issue of Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Carlquist et al provided an excellent study into the use of social media in the medical profession and, in particular, in dermatopathology.¹  With a real dearth of studies into the use of social media and technology in medical education,²  it is fantastic to see such exemplary work performed by the authors. Although the authors noted a number of reasons for the potential underperformance of the dermatopathology population in comparison to the general population, we would like to suggest another. We think that there is potentially a lack of insight and information into the regulations concerning sharing information and patient confidentiality and, hence, a skepticism among physicians about the use of social media, in particular, regarding case information. We think, therefore, that if more clarity was given to physicians on what is permissible without violating confidentiality, there would be a concurrent rise in the use of social media, especially in dermatopathology, leading to a positive effect on medical education.