Following the publication of ‘Medicine, morality and health care social media’ in BMC Medicine, author Farris Timimi (Medical Director, Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media, @FarrisTimimi) and his colleague Lee Aase (Director, Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media, @LeeAase) joined BMC Medicine Editor Sabina Alam (@BMCMedicine) in a twitter chat to discuss the ideas raised in Timimi’s commentary.

It was apparent there was consensus amongst the contributors of the twitter chat – social media should be used as a tool by healthcare providers to interact with patients. Some systems are already in place, but more work is required to develop the right kind of social media platforms, and perhaps more importantly, more physicians should be encouraged to learn how to use social media to engage with the general public. Whether the medical institutions should make this a requirement remains to be determined.

A summary of the discussion with a selection of the contributions can be viewed below.

Following the success of this chat we are considering having more in the future. If you feel there are any topics that should be discussed please get in touch via email, or of course tweet at us ! (@BMCMedicine)