You may be Facebook friends with your brother, your parents, your college buddies and co-workers. But are you friends with your doctors too?

Earlier this week, the American College of Physicians and the Federation of State Medical boards put out a statement that that addressed conduct issues for physicians in the world of social media.

Surprisingly, many doctors now believe they should be taking advantage of digital communication more than they currently are. According to Dr. Ted Eytan of Kaiser Permanente:

“Social media is a way to build trust by delivering useful information and creating good will between patients and physicians.”

Eytan believes instant communication is key in a doctor-patient relationship. And that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re texting and tweeting—it’s more about the patients just knowing they have easy access to quick, reliable information if they need it. 

Regardless, doctors still face ethical issues when allowing patients to enter their digital social circles. How much communication is too much? How does one navigate questions that aren’t necessarily in their area of expertise?

This gray area is exactly why moving forward, doctors need to have guidelines on where to draw the line. But for now. Eytan says a good rule of thumb is to realize that whatever you say could end up elsewhere online:

“A really simple test I use is, ‘Am I comfortable with the tweet I just wrote being on the front page of The Washington Post? What would 9.2 million [people] think of it?”

Have you ever communicated with a doctor online? Do you think it’s okay to add them on Facebook? Let us know in the comments below.