Patient Privacy, Confidentiality Hippa. Must Answer Questions: Essay

patient privacy, confidentiality HIPPA. Must answer questions: Describe issue impact population affects. What arguments facts article support proposed solution.

Park, Alice. (2009, September 23). Are med-student tweets breaching patient privacy? Time

Magazine. Retrieved March 27, 2011 at http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1925430,00.html

Patient privacy article review:

Park, Alice. (2009, September 23). Are med-student tweets breaching patient privacy? Time

Magazine. Retrieved March 27, 2011 at http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1925430,00.html

According to Time Magazine, the Internet has proved to be both a boon to and a bane of patients in the modern era of medicine. On one hand, the Internet can provide a powerful resource for patients, enabling them to share information as well as commiserate with other sufferers. Consider this example of one patient with kidney cancer, whose primary physician recommended a website to research cancer specialists: "Within 11 minutes of submitting his first post to the Association of Cancer Online Resources…[the cancer patient] received recommendations for top specialists -- with links included -- from patients on the site's kidney-cancer list. Within half an hour, an e-mail arrived from an ACOR member suggesting which scans might be appropriate and offering details about interleukin-2, the only treatment at the time that resembled a cure" (Rochman 2010). This demonstrates how the Internet can allow patients to direct their own treatment, no longer rendering them at the mercy of their doctors or insurance companies to learn about the best doctors or the most innovative treatments.

However, the Internet has also rendered patients more vulnerable than ever before to disclosures of private information. Despite efforts of federal and state legislatures to enact laws to protect patient privacy, as well as ethical guidelines issued by the American Medical Association (AMA), technology is changing faster than ever before. The Internet has become a wild, Wild West of the free flow of ideas -- and profound ethical questions still remain regarding how medical information should be discussed online.

While patients' use of the Internet as informed consumers has clear benefits, there are serious privacy concerns when the issue is turned around and it is doctors who are sharing information about patients online.Hearing about individuals publically embarrassing themselves on Facebook and Twitter has become commonplace. "Personal profiles on Facebook and other social-networking sites are a trove of inappropriate and embarrassing photographs and discomfiting breaches of confidentiality. You might expect that from your friends and even some colleagues -- but what about your doctor?" (Park 2009:1).

Medical students, residents, and young doctors have proven to be one of the worst culprits for engaging in such practices. Accustomed to revealing everything about their vocational and scholastic lives online, they often have difficulty exercising ethical judgment and self-censorship regarding patient information. The Journal of the American Medical Association's study of 80 medical-school deans found that over 60% of students "reported incidents involving unprofessional postings and 13% admitted to incidents that violated patient privacy" on social networking sites (Park 2009:1)."They view their Facebook pages as their Internet persona…They think it's something only for their friends, even though it's not private" (Gill 2009:1).

One dean of a medical school defended the practice of online exchanges amongst medical students, cautiously, pointing out that doctors have always talked about problems with colleagues, and sharing information can be an important method of arriving at the correct treatment for the patient. This is particularly true for young doctors, who are beginning their practice. Additionally, talking about the feelings and emotions involved in treating patients can generate a sense of "reflection, empathy and understanding," which are often cited as qualities that are lacking in contemporary doctors. After all, patients on online message boards and other forms of social networking share symptoms and information. Patients have advocated for expanded access to their records online, as well as information about clinical trials pertinent to their illnesses. Why not allow doctors to be as open as their patients, the….....