Physicians, social media, and professionalism

There was a letter to the editor recently published; Feb. 9, 2011 305(6), 566, in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), about the professionalism of physicians in social media, specifically Twitter.

The authors of the paper; Chretien, Azar, and Kind, wanted to determine the, "characteristics of self-identified physicians on Twitter and how they use Twitter, with a specific focus on professionalism." Their conclusions showed that overall the self-identified physicians sharing of information had a positive effect, but they were concerned with HIPAA complaiance, and unprofessional content.

What are your thoughts on physicians using social media to provide health information in light of the recent AMA Policy Professionalism in the use of Social Media and this article by Chretien, Azar, and Kind?