| Home | Title Page | Introduction | Background | Potential Benefits | Legal and Ethical Issues | Security Concerns and Disadvantages | Conclusion | Bibliography |
One of the possibilities in which a physician could be held liable, legally and/or ethically, is by sending patient images via a cell phone. One article that points out this issue is “Fears over medical picture-messaging.” This article gives an example of when this could be an issue: “sending of X-ray images via mobile phones to specialists for interpretation” (Saleem, 2004, p.1), which could lead to “serious ethical and legal implications” (Saleem, 2004, p.1). If physicians are not careful enough, they could be charged or even lose his or her license because “…there are issues around confidentiality and security. These pictures need to be treated like any medical record” (Saleem, 2004, p.1). Any of these images sent via cell phones between physicians could have serious consequences if HIPPA is violated. These consequences could be legal such as a court hearing, or something more serious such as the physician getting his/her license taken away as mentioned before.