JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Promoting online peer support beyond the informal sector to statutory health services, requires ethical considerations and evidence-based knowledge about its impact on patients, healthcare professionals and the wider healthcare system. Evidence on the effectiveness of digital interventions in primary care is sparse, and definitive guidance is lacking on the ethical concerns arising from the use of social media as a means for health-related interventions and research. Existing literature examining ethical issues with digital interventions in healthcare mainly focuses on apps, electronic health records, wearables, telephone/video consultations etc., without necessarily covering digital social interventions, and/or does not always account for primary care settings specifically. Here we address the ethical and information governance aspects of undertaking research on the promotion of online peer support to patients by primary care clinicians, related to medical and public health ethics.