Do Med-Student Tweets Breach Patient Privacy?

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We’ve touched on this subject a few times in the past but it seems that, as the popularity of Twitter grows, so do the questions about its use in certain situations.

Although med students fully understand patient-confidentiality laws and are indoctrinated in the high ethical standards to which their white-coated profession is held, many of them still use Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr and other sites to depict and discuss lewd behavior and sexual misconduct, make discriminatory statements and discuss patient cases in violation of confidentiality laws.
 
kick them out and fine the hospitals involved. A real doctor would get his shit kicked in by the government if he did this.
 
It's only a breach of patient privacy if the patient is identified. As long as they are discussing "a patient", and not "John Q. Doe", who cares what medium they use for communication?

Privacy is overdone. Some days, I wonder who's worse, piracy nuts, or privacy nuts.
 
It's all fun and games till someone gets named.
If anyone got caught violating confidentiality laws they should be blacklisted from the medical board.
 
Once we all become computer records that just about anyone on the planet can access, this will all be a moot point anyway.
 
Patient "A" has a unique birthmark. Goes into hospital.

Med Student "B" posts on facebook

So this chump with an italy looking birthmark on his arm comes in for complications of HIV the other day...
 
its beyond privacy breach, its a hippa violation and federal crime. i work in health care support, your suppose to keep the conversation to only the parties involved and basically to the minimum "need to know people".
 
its beyond privacy breach, its a hippa violation and federal crime. i work in health care support, your suppose to keep the conversation to only the parties involved and basically to the minimum "need to know people".

/thread

Anyone that's dealt with HIPPA requirements for information privacy will know this.
 
Here is my question. Why do medical records need to be private at all?

I could care less if I had herpes and other people knew about it. Seriously, we pay all of this money to keep medical records private that really wouldn't matter if they got out anyways.

Why should medical records about a broken bone require privacy?

It doesn't make any sense to me.
 
Here is my question. Why do medical records need to be private at all?

I could care less if I had herpes and other people knew about it. Seriously, we pay all of this money to keep medical records private that really wouldn't matter if they got out anyways.

Why should medical records about a broken bone require privacy?

It doesn't make any sense to me.

Because most people don't feel the same way as you about their medical information. HIPAA. Some people just don't want the world knowing, what they're allergic to, what procedures they have done, or what chronic condition they may have for fear of discrimination of any kind.
 
yea, you guys have no idea how bad/strict this stuff is. in CA at least, we are fined big bucks. personally. i cant even go out and have a smoke and chit chat with a cute paramedic about the latest fucktard that got his brains blown out without worrying about losing everything i own.

its all for the right reasons, but the end result is straight out of hitlers germany in execution.

some people learn the internet the hard way though. social networking requires some common sense.
 
I too work in the medical industry; this is unacceptable. Med Students, doctors, nurses, ANYONE caught doing this should be smashed in the face and punished.
 
Here is my question. Why do medical records need to be private at all?

I could care less if I had herpes and other people knew about it. Seriously, we pay all of this money to keep medical records private that really wouldn't matter if they got out anyways.

Why should medical records about a broken bone require privacy?

It doesn't make any sense to me.

Medical records about a broken bone probably wouldn't bother most. Then again, no one would probably want to know either. But there are still diseases and injuries that would have a stigma attached to them if the public were able to access them, and all medical records must be treated equally.

There is also the matter of privacy for privacy's sake. Just because something being public probably wouldn't cause any harm, doesn't mean it NEEDS to be public.

Everything should be private unless the benefit gained from making it public outweighs any possible harm. For example, your broken bone scenario. It would serve absolutely no purpose for the public to know you had a broken bone treated. Yet it might upset some people to have that information revealed. So the zero benefit does not outweigh the privacy loss.

On the other hand, something like Google Street View. It provides enormous convenience for the public, and very few people are going to be upset that their home had a blurry photo taken of it from a public street.

It's all about weighing the benefits.
 
doing my thing dealing with the ghetto, welfare, and old, and this ghetto woman told me i violated her hipaa rights. i was at a computer behind the counter and was yelling to her asking what medication she wanted filled. she said i was violating her hipaa rights, i told her i wasnt, if she did not want to disclose to me the medication in public, that she could come around to the privacy counter and whisper to me the medication. it is not a violation to ask in public personal healthcare information, it is in violation to disclose it. because i was the one to ask her to disclose it and not the one disclosing, i was not in violation. sure enough the woman got all sensitive about some valtrex. nothing is identifying in what i just said and is all allowable under hippa. once u bring in names, and birthdates, things are starting to go into violation. im not in the medical field but hipaa rules apply identically to me as they do mr. md
 
Marylandman- That's funny. What, did she expect you to read her mind to know what to fill? Anyone wanting to be discreet, and willing to put the tiniest bit of thought into how to do it, could have written a script number, name, necessary info on a piece of paper, handed it across the counter, and said, "I'd like this refilled, please.", or better yet, have used a mail-order pharmacy. Doesn't sound much like you get to deal with the kind of folks that put a little thought into things, though.

marylandman's post is a good example of how this doesn't have to be a problem. Medical information was discussed, on a public internet forum. No one was identified. No privacy issue exists.
 
We have a distant family/work friend who got fired for posting X-ray images on facebook with all patient information REMOVED. There wasn't a damn thing to identify this person unless you can walk down the street with your x-ray vision (turned on?) and identify a particular individual's healed broken arm bone.

Still though she was fired (mostly because of this other witch that works with her). That's taking these laws way too far...
 
another interesting thing no one mentioned is how HIPAA applies. if you are not working at a place or in contract with a place or in a capacity of someone working with personal identifying health information at the time you gain knowledge of the information(ill explain it in a second because i dont know how to word it better) for example, i am doctor such and such and i work at hospital A i go and visit my beautiful doctor fiancee working at hospital B, (i neither work at hospital B nor am I under contract of hospital B) and i over hear doctors discussing patients and i learn such and such has AIDS, and so on, I am entirely entitled to discuss this with anyone i please. Just because I am a doctor does not mean I cannot discuss patient information with other people, it just means i can't discuss my/my organization's patients information. which goes onto the HIPAA exemptions and how its wording leaves room for loopholes. for example, how you can freely disclose patient information if it is for the good of the public such as an outbreak scenario or also in the case of legal proceedings. The DEA came to my pharmacy the other day. had to contact corporate level privacy officials for disclosure but none the less information was released. and the ever ethical versus moral debate. which is the one to follow? your sister is engaged to a man, and they have not yet done the deed. the man she is engaged to comes into your office, hospital, or pharmacy even, with Rx's for retroviral meds like Zovirax. do you morally release to her the fact he has AIDS or do you ethically let her find out when she is told a decade from now her white cell count is 0 and she has advanced full blown AIDS? people talk high and mighty about ethics until they have to deal with HIPAA and the dilemma it brings. to the healthcare field.
 
i cant even go out and have a smoke and chit chat with a cute paramedic about the latest fucktard that got his brains blown out without worrying about losing everything i own.

Damn, you stole my "brains blown out" pickup line.
 
Here is my question. Why do medical records need to be private at all?

I could care less if I had herpes and other people knew about it. Seriously, we pay all of this money to keep medical records private that really wouldn't matter if they got out anyways.

Why should medical records about a broken bone require privacy?

It doesn't make any sense to me.

Just cause you are not bothered that people know if you had herpes for example, does not mean another person would feel the same as you do. In fact i would think most people would be embarrassed if people knew they had herpes.

What if you had aids? Would you want others to know that about you, and more rumors sprout how you got it? Or the other social snubbing you will get from being associated with Aids.

Another example would be abortion. Do you want those anti abortionists to know you had an abortion? They'd know whos house to stalk and shout condemnation slander at.

These are examples why privacy matters :D Not saying i condone any of the bad things that may be associated with some of these diseases, but just saying people deserve privacy to.


But if they don't identify who is the patient, i don't think it matters. But if it was a celebrity, i am pretty sure people would be able to find out who John Doe is being talked about on Twitter. If your a nobody i guess your safe if your doctor decides to talk about your case on twit without giving out a real name ;)
 
By the way, the worse privavy issue did not happen on twitter.

Einstein's brain was stolen without the families permission. They took his brain and eyes and preserved it to conduct research. People only found out about this criminal act later on. They later tried to claim that Einstein had given consent.

So rather then worrying about twitter, i'd be more worried about cases like what happened to Einstein. Is it moral that people can steal your families body parts and get away with it??
 
I still don't understand the need for someone to be twitting all the time. Its like they are going to die if they don't post something up at that site every 30 minutes. Retarded bunch of people
 
your sister is engaged to a man, and they have not yet done the deed. the man she is engaged to comes into your office, hospital, or pharmacy even, with Rx's for retroviral meds like Zovirax. do you morally release to her the fact he has AIDS or do you ethically let her find out when she is told a decade from now her white cell count is 0 and she has advanced full blown AIDS? people talk high and mighty about ethics until they have to deal with HIPAA and the dilemma it brings. to the healthcare field.

This is what's wrong with privacy laws. When one persons "right to privacy" allows them to conceal the fact that they are a public health threat.
 
your sister is engaged to a man, and they have not yet done the deed. the man she is engaged to comes into your office, hospital, or pharmacy even, with Rx's for retroviral meds like Zovirax. do you morally release to her the fact he has AIDS or do you ethically let her find out when she is told a decade from now her white cell count is 0 and she has advanced full blown AIDS? people talk high and mighty about ethics until they have to deal with HIPAA and the dilemma it brings. to the healthcare field.

STDs are a really bad example to use. For the most part you have to report STDs to all of your partners, or your doctor will. With something like AIDS it is mandatory to tell your partner, or you put yourself for being put on trial for murder.
 
As a physician who completed medical school 4 years ago and recently finished residency I'd like to make a few clarifications and comments.

STDs are a really bad example to use. For the most part you have to report STDs to all of your partners, or your doctor will. With something like AIDS it is mandatory to tell your partner, or you put yourself for being put on trial for murder.

This is true in many states, in Michigan, you must report HIV and such to the departmetn of health, and the department of health will access and contact possible contacts and inform them. (there is a balance between confidentiality and the protection of others) Some states such as Massachusetts are completely over protective. You cannot notifiy anyone without that person's permission. Even if they tell you, "yeah I know, and my wife doesn't but I don't like to use condoms" You are not allowed to say anything. (which in infuritating) Actually worse is that if you had a needle stick injury or something like that, you cannot test them for HIV as you can in other states so that you or the nurse involved can get medication to try to prevent you from catching it. In fact, the person's health care proxy cannot either. That is if this person came in unconcious and unable to communicate, you cannot test them in Massachusetts.


Anyhow that aside. I think that it is ok to discuss cases with your collegues, and you can complain about people in the privacy of your own home etc. But to publicly post things about patients that would allow them to be identified without their permission is inexcusible. If one of the med students working with me did something like that, I would A. immediately make them stop. B. report them to the medical school, as I feel that this is not the ethical behavior for a physician, and I would not tolerate someone in my field doing such.

And finally, such behavior is illegal. When you start working at a hospital or medical facility you have to take a hippa course and consent to the conditions. Violating this can result in immediate termination, fines and jail time. While it seems rough to put students up to this standard, I believe that it is warranted. The law is the law. If you violate the law, and the code of ethics you are sworn to uphold, then you should be punished according to the law.
 
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