Patients Sue Physician Over Online Photos
Why would it be surprising that if a doctor posts photos online that make it easy to recognize the patient (private information) they will get into trouble? But what happens when doctors post photos about only body parts of the patients? Have you had such experience?
Plastic and cosmetic surgeons often post photos online — usually without showing faces — so potential customers can view their work.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuits — who were patients of plastic surgeon Michele Koo — signed a waiver stating that Koo and other physicians could use their photos, videos and case histories in presentations, websites or other materials “for the purpose of informing the medical profession or the general public.”
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The documents you are forced to sign in order to get medical care are not done between two equal parties and are always written to protect the provider’s right’s not the patients..
The HIPPA notification is a perfect example.. The document you sign states that you received the HIPPA policy but most people are just given the notification form not the HIPPA policy. Even then you are not protected much at all since they can use your medical information for a wide variety of uses.. We now for example have “free” EHR’s that require the provider to sign over their rights to your health information but never inform the patient that they did. .
if the provider wants to use their images to market his practice then they should at the very least have a separate waiver that you sign only after the surgery itself.