Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
Blogging and doctoring. Is this allowed? I have researched HIPAA regulations and blogging. As long as I am careful to not disclose any of the 18 Health Information Identifiers, I am okay. Further information can be found at http://casesblog.blogspot.com/2005/07/case-reports-and-hipaa-rules.html. There are a number of resident bloggers out there. Just google resident or medical blog and see.
Physicians have a long tradition of being writers: Abraham Verghese, Oliver Sacks, William Carlos Williams, A. J. Cronin and the list goes on. Physicians tell their stories and since patients make up a big part of their lives, their patients' stories too. Blogging is a new dimension but a continuance of this tradition. If done respecting the dignity and privacy of the patients and with care to avoid divulging health information identifiers, it can become the next torch-bearing media in chronicle-ing our experience with pain, suffering and healing.
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I am a physician practicing Internal Medicine and Pediatrics. This blog chronicles my life first as a medical student, then as a resident. It is about stories of medicine. If you think 'Scrubs' or 'Grey's Anatomy' tells the stories of a resident's life, then here is what it is really like (for one resident, anyway). This blog’s contents conform to HIPAA guidelines. No patient information is released and information that can be used for identification has been changed.
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About Me
- Med/Peds doc
- I am a physician board-certified in both Internal Medicine and in Pediatrics. Before becoming a doctor, I was a biochemistry professor, researcher and scientist. I am originally from India but have lived all over the world (born in Nigeria, lived in Nigeria, Liberia, Japan, India, Panama and the United States). I am married and have a 10 year old daughter. I love what I do. I love taking care of sick kids and older people -- the two specialties I am involved with. I am also into research on bacteriophages against Staphylococcus aureus.