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The dos and don'ts of revealing information on the web
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Do you use this professional networking site LinkedIn? I am a little late to this whole social networking thing that "the kids today" are into (read: I am old), but I do like this LinkedIn site so far. It allows you to upload your current projects and use it for establishing new contacts, giving recommendations about coworkers, soliciting recommendations about your own work. You can link to your Web sites, etc. You can search for other people with similar interests by keyword. It can sometimes provide more details about your work than perhaps your hospital or clinic Web site currently provides. A warning is in order, however: expect that your patients may look at your site as well. More than for my clinical work, I find it is useful for managing my pharmaceutical and other contacts. In my quick perusal of the site it looks like quite a few PharmDs, MDs and RNs are on there already.
In other news, have you ever googled yourself? I am sure your patients are doing that before they come to see you for the first time (at least those with Internet access). I learned one important lesson so far: never use your full name for things you do online that you would not want your patients to see. For example, I have family photos uploaded to a photo-sharing site with my full name on it, so many of my patients have now seen my extended family photos. No big deal for 99.9% of patients, but you do get worried sometimes about a few. More worrisome is if you make comments (or donations!) on a political or religious or otherwise possibly controversial site using your full name. Your patients will see it. At least at my institution, showing a political or religious preference is a no-no.