Transcript The Lawyers Don't Always Say No: Bring Legal Into Health

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The Lawyers Don't Always Say No:
Bringing Legal into Health Care
Social Media Strategic Planning
Social Communications
and Healthcare
July 23, 2009
New York, NY
David Harlow JD MPH
THE HARLOW GROUP LLC
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THE HARLOW GROUP LLC
Uses of Social Media
• Preliminary questions:
▫ What are your strategic goals?
▫ How can social media help you achieve those
goals?
▫ What level of resources are you devoting to this
effort?
• Involving the lawyers early on can help avoid
costly retrenchment and/or errors later on
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THE HARLOW GROUP LLC
Legal hot button issues in health care
social media (1)
• Patient privacy
▫ HIPAA
▫ State law
▫ Key: patient consent
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THE HARLOW GROUP LLC
Legal hot button issues in health care
social media (2)
• Practicing medicine on line / malpractice
exposure
▫ Established patients
▫ New patients
▫ Adequacy of disclaimers
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THE HARLOW GROUP LLC
Legal hot button issues in health care
social media (3)
• Regulation of on-line advertising
▫ The Cheerios case
 FDA warning letter: http://bit.ly/FDAcheerios
 Website treated as part of unapproved drug labeling
• Must tread carefully
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THE HARLOW GROUP LLC
Legal hot button issues in health care
social media (4)
• Sponsored forums
▫ Liability for community posts
• Others?
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Resources
• HCSM legal tweetchat:
http://bit.ly/hcsmlegal
• Column on twitter for lawyers:
http://bit.ly/twitlaw
• Presentation on social media for lawyers:
http://bit.ly/smlaw
(Pieces originally intended for lawyers mostly
applicable to other professionals & health care
institutions)
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THE HARLOW GROUP LLC
Contact
David Harlow JD MPH
THE HARLOW GROUP LLC
www.harlowgroup.net
www.healthblawg.typepad.com
www.twitter.com/healthblawg
[email protected]
617.965.9732