Professional Use of Digital and Social Media

Committee Opinion Number 622, February 2015

(Reaffirmed 2019)

ABSTRACT: Digital and social media quickly are becoming universal in modern medical practice. Data sharing, online reviews and ratings, and digital privacy concerns likely will become a part of most every physician’s practice, regardless of his or her use of social media. The widespread use of social media in the United States brings unprecedented connectivity that opens new horizons for physicians, ranging from interactions with patients, to communication with peers and the public, to novel approaches to research.

Patient Safety and Health Information Technology

Committee Opinion Number 621, January 2015

(Replaces Committee Opinion Number 472, November 2010)

ABSTRACT: The advantages of health information technology (IT) include facilitating communication between health care providers; improving medication safety, tracking, and reporting; and promoting quality of care through optimized access to and adherence to guidelines. Health IT systems permit the collection of data for use for quality management, outcome reporting, and public health disease surveillance and reporting. However, improvement is needed with all health IT, especially regarding design, implementation, and integration between platforms within the work environment. Robust interopera...

Empathy in Womens Health Care

Committee Opinion Number 480, March 2011

Reaffirmed 2017

ABSTRACT: Empathy is the process through which one attempts to project oneself into another's life and imagine a situation from his or her point of view. Most individuals do have an innate capacity to show empathy toward others. Empathy is as important to being a good physician as technical competence. However, at times the health care environment and educational process overly emphasize technological competence, curing disease rather than healing the patient, or the economic aspects of medicine. This may interfere with an empathic approach in the clinical setting. In this Committee Opinion, ...

Clinical Guidelines and Standardization of Practice to Improve Outcomes

Committee Opinion Number 792, September 2019

(Replaces Committee Opinion 629, April 2015)

ABSTRACT: Protocols and checklists have been shown to reduce patient harm through improved standardization and communication. Implementation of protocols and guidelines often is delayed because of lack of health care provider awareness or difficult clinical algorithms in medical institutions. However, the use of checklists and protocols clearly has been demonstrated to improve outcomes and their use is strongly encouraged. Checklists and protocols should be incorporated into systems as a way to help practitioners provide the best evidence-based care to their patients.