At the University of California Irvine School of Medicine, their philosophy on technology use during patient encounters is that mobile technologies (such as the iPad) are a useful patient education adjunct, though they should not distract from the purpose of the encounter. To assist in this endeavor, the iMedEd curriculum at UC Irvine has developed a list of 15 self-assessment questions to help providers better integrate mobile technology into patient encounters.

The Internet has created the ability for medical students and physicians to communicate and share information quickly and to reach millions of people easily. Participating in social networking and other similar Internet opportunities can support physicians’ personal expression, enable individual physicians to have a professional presence online, foster collegiality and camaraderie within the profession, provide opportunity to widely disseminate public health messages and other health communication. Social networks, blogs, and other forms of communication online also create new challenges to the patient-physician relationship. Physicians should weigh a number of considerations when maintaining a presence online, as described here based on the November 2010 report "Professionalism in the Use of Social Media."

This toolkit contains six cases based on real-life examples chosen to illustrate key concepts involving digital professionalism and social media. Each case includes a set of guiding questions that should help foster discussion about specific points within the case. Source material that the cases are based upon is included for review.