SURVEY – The massive use of social networks multiplies the risks of damage to the image and reputation. Twittos doctors have paid the price, victims of the rumor.
Obviously doctors are not horrible health professionals devoid of all feelings in the face of the ills of society. And like the others, they are hurt by the bad buzz they sometimes generate. But the worst thing for them, as for others, is when they are victims of rumor.
Very present on the Internet, and in contact with patients, they have become prime targets for malicious Internet users. The list of false accusations is long and could turn off more than one practitioner to venture onto social media.
Serious defamations
Dr Baptiste Beaulieu had this bitter experience. Active on Twitter (since 2013) and author of a successful blog (1), he recounts this time when a patient asked him for help because she had been raped. In her note to the young general practitioner, she accused a practitioner (named) as well as a physiotherapist and a nurse (also named) of the offense.
Doctor and not magistrate, the latter referred him very kindly to justice, advising him to file a complaint. Angry, the patient added him to her list of suspected rapists the next day in a blog post. “I had never met him, I did not know him from Eve or Adam. She lived in Lille and I in the South of France ”.
Cold sweats, anger, Baptiste Beaulieu admits to having gone through all the feelings. But during a phone call to the accuser’s doctor, he learns that she is a psychiatric patient and that she is increasing hospital stays. The controversy is extinguished. “Still, it has a funny effect. It hurts. It’s very, very hurtful, ”says Baptiste Beaulieu.
Reprisals between colleagues
But the cyber-misadventures of this family doctor in Midi-Pyrénées did not stop there. A successful writer, he now attracts the jealousy of certain colleagues. And those are trying to discredit him. By asserting for example that they had heard “from a reliable source that he had not done his internships in medicine when he was external”. Baptiste Beaulieu would therefore be a usurper doctor … Very touched by these lies, this denier corrects: “I have many faults but I have one quality, which is that I have always been a little maniac so when I was in medical school i went to all my internships. To see this tweet relayed, it put me beside myself. It’s injustice and injustice drives me crazy, ”he concludes.
Baptiste Beaulieu, general practitioner: ” I do not give one to two years before an Internet user creates a TripAdvisor of doctors …“
Faced with these extremely serious attacks, the National Council of the Order of Physicians (CNOM) does not remain impassive. Dr Jacques Lucas, in charge of medical ethics at the Order, even calls out to his colleagues. “If you are the victim of a slander or a rumor, if it really is perfectly defamatory, you can seize the judicial authorities which are responsible for the reparation of this defamation”.
The means of defense of physicians
“We have the example of a gynecologist-obstetrician defamed on sites of ratings and opinions of practitioners. She lodged a complaint and the person was sentenced by the ordinary courts. The culprit was even convicted on appeal, with a fine, ”says Dr. Lucas. To go even further in the means of defense of the practitioners, he proposes that the insurers in civil liability of the doctors set up a legal assistance which would be triggered as soon as the latter are victims of the rumor.
For its part, the Mutuelle d’Assurances du Corps de Santé Français (MACSF) recalls that health professionals can also request the deletion of the defamatory message to the director of the publication or to the editor of the website. It indicates that they can also make use of their right of opposition. The person targeted by a disparaging message must therefore request the deletion of his name (and personal data) under the Data Protection Act. What perhaps to restore confidence to doctors in the e-turmoil …
(1) “So there you go. Journal of patients / caregivers reconciled »
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