Joe Harris reports:
Five women who had cosmetic surgery say they were humiliated to find that an Internet search of their names leads to before-and-after photographs of their naked breasts, posted by their surgeon to promote her business.
Michele Koo, MD, took the pictures from her patients’ confidential medical files, according to five separate complaints in St. Louis County Circuit Court.
The patients, suing anonymously, say the photos depict them naked from waist to chin and disclose their names.
Read more on Courthouse News.
I’d like to see the defendant’s response to the complaint.
h/t, @kashhill
Update: More coverage of the case on ABC. Interestingly, attorney Jeff Drummond’s comment on the case was:
Actually, it’s possible that it’s not a HIPAA violation, if the steps the physician took were reasonable and sufficient, and the breach occurred despite taking those reasonable steps. That’s a subjective standard, and perhaps could be met. HIPAA doesn’t require perfection, just reasonable steps for protection. But at this point, I think it’s really just a matter of damages, which frankly could be huge.
He raises an interesting point. The attorney for the plaintiffs explain that the patients’ names showed up on a Google images search of their names and/or if someone hovered the cursor over a picture on the web site. The attorney also alleges that the physician did not respond promptly enough to remove all such pictures once she became aware of the issue.
I would tend to view this situation as a HIPAA violation because the pictures were not posted as part of the patients’ care but to advertise the business/practice and therefore: (1) the doctor knew that pictures would be on the internet and (2) should have taken even greater precautions to ensure that none of the patients were identifiable. But I’m not a HIPAA expert or lawyer representing doctors.