Social media credentials are coming to healthcare.

Mayo Clinic's Center for Social Media and Hootsuite on Tuesday, in fact, announced a joint training program specifically for medical professionals.  

The initiative is designed to teach providers "practical competency" in social media and ultimately "help them begin to see ways they can use these tools to improve their delivery of care and the patient experience," Farris Timimi, MD, medical director for MCCSM, said in a prepared statement. 

As such, the program teaches the basics of social networks, how social tools fit into the broader healthcare landscape, what to know about analytics and monitoring, as well as tips for maintaining a professional manner when using social media. 

The course, available via Learnkit, is web-based and mobile-friendly. 

And clinicians can earn continuing medical education credits through Mayo's School of Continuous Professional Development.

Mayo and Hootsuite revealed the new program at the Healthcare and Social Media Summit in Brisbane, Australia.

Mayo has been pioneering many different social media techniques lately. Earlier this summer, for example, it launched an account on Periscope, a Twitter-owned app that enables users to do real-time livecasting, and so far has used it to broadcast keynotes and education sessions.