Protecting psychiatrists' reputations on the internet

摘要

The reputation of physicians is now at risk on the Internet. Dr. Gabbard's clinical case conference in the May issue (1) provides a striking example. A resident providing good clinical care seems helpless to protect his professional reputation in the face of critical web postings by the patient's mother, becoming a victim of "the Internet era." Dr. Gabbard suggests that guidelines on "how to respond to [such] attacks should be developed." We would like to offer some ideas about how to begin that process. Although there are services (e.g., emerit.biz [2]) that offer to help doctors establish and protect their reputation by being proactive, these entities apparently have no effective remedy against negative postings. Indeed, one web site has a "wall of shame" that lists physicians who have tried to prevent postings of negative comments (3). Sites are protected by federal law against suits for defamation, and anecdotal evidence indicates that physicians who initiate legal action against the posting individual are likely to make matters worse.