The availability of smart phones has started a trend in medical training where in residents and fellows will take pictures of patients, lesions, injuries, diagnostic imaging and other lab results and send it via smart phone apps. In fact, some consultants would specifically ask the resident to take a specific picture of the patient (photo or video) for them to fully assess the patient's condition. The convenience for both the residents and consultants is enormous. However, privacy and confidentiality issues definitely hounds this practice. What are your take on this practice? I would appreciate a sample of policies among training hospitals on the use of smart phones in residency or post graduate training.
I provide a lot of counselling services remotely via text-based chat and there are similar ethical issues to those posed in the question you are asking. The first part of the answer is that, at least in my field, I try to ensure that my clients are able to give informed consent to sharing information electronically. I know many medical professionals who use smartphones to consult others via text, and exchanging photographs. I do not know how many of them obtain informed consent from their patients to do so. I do not know what a physician's ethical obligation is in this regard.
Second, how is the information stored? If a physician uses his personal smartphone to take a photo of a skin lesion, for instance, to show to a specialist for consultation, what happens to that photo? Is it kept on the phone? Deleted? Again, is there a code of ethics that provides guidance on this issue in the medical profession? For myself, I would be expected to file such an artefact in a secure place (not my smartphone).
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