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Doctors And The Misuse Of Technology
from the is-this-really-that-hard? dept
You would think that common sense would prevent these sorts of things from happening, but as per usual, money seems to get in the way of common sense. A doctor has been fined for prescribing drugs over the internet to patients he never met. He's certainly not the only one. There are all sorts of stories about greedy doctors willing to randomly prescribe just about any kind of controlled substance via various (less than legit) online pharmacy sites. Meanwhile, though, do doctors really need to be warned not to diagnose patients based on camera phone photos? Apparently, many general practitioners are snapping quick shots of patients to send off to specialists for a diagnosis. While I can see how such photos can be useful for follow up treatments, it seems a bit questionable to do a full diagnosis based on one. At the same time, there's the risk of a privacy violation of a doctor sending the photo to someone else. Of course, that's a risk that people take any time they send information anywhere. Still, it sounds like there's an opportunity for someone to create a better (secure) system for physicians to exchange photos.
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security and docs
One clarification, those warned off from taking pics were british docs. In the US, HIPPA regulations dictate that individual messages be encrypted. I've mentioned that in these posts: 1, 2 and covered how my clinic uses an ASP deployed EPIC electronic medical record over leased lines to ensure security: overview of a clinic visit & reviewing the record before i go in, making orders in the exam room, printed instructions to take home, and access to your own online record.
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Re: security and docs
I hope they encrypt my X-ray before sending it off to India for a reading.
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In general you're right, but watch the exceptions:
In general you're right, but it makes perfect sense for a generalist to send a cam photo of a strange skin sore or skin marking to an expert, asking, Do you reconize this? The expert might, and then confirming tests can be made.
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